


We Come To Life

by bythelightofthenight



Series: the 100 rewrite [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/F, F/M, Friendship, M/M, a fix-it fic is what this is, most of this is honestly just friendships n the formation of a found family n then some flirting, season one, starting w raven wells n monty povs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-15 13:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9236852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bythelightofthenight/pseuds/bythelightofthenight
Summary: Raven Reyes grew up on The Ark, an assembly of space stations come together after the Earth became inhabitable. The strict laws of The Ark left her brother Finn incarcerated and waiting for trial on his 20th birthday for an illegal spacewalk. Before a trial can take place, Raven learns Finn is no longer on The Ark as a hundred prisoners were sent down to the ground due to overpopulation and oxygen levels decreasing with the station slowly coming apart.Raven manages to make it to the ground and reunites with her old friend Wells Jaha, the son of the chancellor. Bellamy Blake, who was on the dropship to be with his young sister, has taken charge of the 100 and isn't happy with Raven’s arrival and her mission to reconnect with The Ark.Along trying to contact The Ark, the 100 learn they’re not alone. When Wells stumbles upon an injured man in the woods, the camp is divided between the ones trusting the groundspeople to be a peaceful nation and those who believe they will want to eradicate the people who fell from the sky before more come. The wedge between them grows as people start disappearing from the camp.[gifset]





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you've followed me for a while, finally!! otherwise, just hello !
> 
> these five chapters will make up season one's arc. season two will be part two of the series (hopefully).
> 
> warnings for this arc: minor character death(s) (*check end notes), dealing with loss in all povs, canon parental abuse and other difficult/unhealthy familial relationships in changed and added character backgrounds. 
> 
> then for some notes!  
> \- while most of the characters are aged up towards 20 (wells, raven and bellamy are all over that), octavia is aged down to a child and due to the conditions of her upbringing she appears even younger  
> \- finn and raven have no romantic relationship  
> \- some canon white characters have been recast to non white characters  
> \- the povs don't delve too deeply into faith as a topic but different religions do still exist and they are practiced by several characters  
> \- multiple different languages are spoken on the ark but the entire story is written in english. the mix of languages isn't apparent until later on when interactions with the grounders start as they have a more limited language selection  
> \- this is a hugely anti abby story as you'll see, while clarke's character will develop plenty and hopefully you can enjoy her even just through wells  
>  
> 
> i've tagged some ships but tbh the romance isn't much in focus. season two is when it gets more specifically romantic. i think that's it ? i'll add more later on if i remember something else.

“Reyes! Hold on.”

Raven stops with her hand hovering over the door controls. She doesn't turn around as footsteps move closer.

“You can't go in.”

Finally, she faces the guard addressing her. He has his fingers loosely wrapped around the end of his shock baton as he approaches her.

“Why not? It’s visiting day.”

“No one’s going in or out. Those are the orders. Move along.”

She stands her ground, arms crossed over her chest. “Why?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. Get going.”

“My brother’s expecting me.”

“No one has a brother”, the guard says, moving around her to get between her and the door.

“Water is wet. Fire is hot. I love this game; let’s keep going.”

The guard isn’t amused. Raven sighs and throws up her hands, backing away.

“I’m getting in there. Just wait.”

The guard barely blinks until she’s disappearing around the corner. Raven stops under the light that’s somehow always blinking no matter how many times it gets fixed. She considers going back, but dismisses the idea quickly. Finding out who gave the orders would work better.

The person she goes to find is Abby Griffin. The only chief she is is the chief of medical, but her power reaches much further and giving orders is like second nature to her. And Raven knows where to find her.

Medical is quiet that day. Only two people sit in the hallway. Raven shudders at the sound of the breaths of the graying couple rattling in their lungs. She doesn’t fear death, but she’s never wanted to die here, trapped.

“Miss Reyes. What can I do for you?” Abby Griffin asks after sending her latest patient away.

“They wouldn’t let me into the Skybox. What’s up with that? It’s visiting day.”

Abby chuckles lightly and sets down her stethoscope. “You make it sound like visiting is a right and not a privilege.”

“Either way. It should be my privilege today.”

“No one's allowed into lockup. It's on lockdown.”

Raven stares at her for a few seconds, keeping her mouth shut to hold down the frustration that threatens to spill over. “Lockup’s on lockdown?”

“A virus has been contained in the Skybox and we don’t need it in the general population. No one’s going in. That’s the situation right now. Visitations will resume as soon as we can be sure the virus won’t be transmitting”, Abby explains calmly.

“A virus?”

“Nothing serious. But an unnecessary inconvenience, which we are currently trying to avoid. So time to get back to work, miss Reyes. You’ll be notified when you’re allowed back in.”

There’s a feeling in her gut, a feeling that’s rarely wrong, telling her not to trust the woman. They've seen health issues over the years on The Ark. The Skybox seems like the last place to contract a virus. The people there live among each other for the most part, only visiting days bringing in new faces. Even the guards there remain at their posts for long periods of time.

Raven nods and leaves without a fight. Abby Griffin is the last person to displease. She isn’t done, though, not even close.

Visiting the Skybox is a routine thing for her. She works for two weeks without a glitch and she gets to go spend time with Finn for a few hours. She’s earned the right with good behavior at least. Not right - privilege.

She bumps into Red as she’s walking towards her living quarters. The fellow mechanic laughs at her lack of focus.

“Hey. Why are you here?”

“Visitation’s off.”

“Too bad, man. You gonna come back to work?”

“Sure. In a minute.”

Red lets her pass, and she slips through the crowd of workers heading to the mess hall for their break. It’s quiet once they’ve passed. Raven drops down on her bunk, staring at the ceiling.

Besides work, this is all she’s meant to do. Seeing Finn is the highlight of her weeks, what keeps her going. After he got locked up, she’d adopted a newfound respect, nay, fear of rules. Before, they’d lived freely without a care. When they had each other, they were untouchable. Then Finn was taken in and everything changed. She’s been on her own ever since.

Now she’s alone mainly because the majority of her friends have ended up in the Skybox over the past few years. It’s a holding place for everyone under the age of 20, who has broken the laws of The Ark. Finn is still waiting for his trial alongside dozens of others. Once he reaches his next birthday, the Council will determine if his life is worth saving. To those over 20 with no redemption it’s the airlock, final moments spent behind the glass before the door opens and sucks them out into space.

Execution is the most common cause of death on The Ark.

Finn never seems afraid. He doesn’t have a fate to accept yet, but he’s calm. Raven knows he's comforted by his faith. He's never been much of a student but the words of the old rabbi are something he's learned by heart. But they both know his chances aren’t great. He was convicted for an illegal spacewalk, for wasting oxygen. Despite being seen as a childish lapse of judgment, it’s a crime with very little leeway to forgiveness.

The quiet feels unnatural. Raven touches the necklace hanging from the lamp by her bunk. It was a gift from Finn years and years ago. It’s a simple round piece of metal with a small raven carved into the smooth surface. Finn’s handy like that. He likes coming up with projects of his own when the tasks from others fail to catch his attention. It’s Raven’s most prized possession.

She heads back to work. It’s not like she has anything better to do, now.

\--

“Up!”

Wells is startled awake by the strange voice. It’s still dark in his cell; it’s not time for breakfast. “What’s going on?”

“Hold out your hands.”

He does. There’s another guard by the door, keeping an eye on the hallway outside. “What’s going on?”

The guard, Denby he thinks, doesn’t answer. Instead he takes a hold of his wrist and wraps something cool around it. A light turns on on top of the band and suddenly dozens of needles stick into his skin. Denby holds on as he instinctively tries to pull away. The ache dulls away soon enough, but now he’s afraid.

“I need to speak to my father. Please.”

“Time to go, kid”, the second guard says, gesturing for him to follow.

The hall’s quiet, no one in sight. They walk past the other cells, and Wells sees no one inside. His heart is beating in his ears, a fight or flight reaction attempting to kick in, but he subdues it.

The corridor they end up in is one he’s never been to before. Wells doesn’t know how long he’s been in lockup; time moves differently in solitude. Normally overhearing things he isn't supposed to rarely leads to repercussions because of his father, the chancellor. But this time he heard too much.

One hundred prisoners awaiting trial are to be sent down to the ground. There’s no clear knowledge on whether it’s survivable or not. But for the rest of the population to keep on living, the sacrifice has to be made. And on the off chance they survive the drop and the Earth's conditions, it was all planned and calculated to perfection, and that’s all the people need to know.

Wells has had too much time to think about what he heard in the Skybox. He was locked up after they caught him listening in. Them being Abby Griffin and a few of her associates. He still doesn’t know if his father knows about it. You don’t get visitors in isolation.

At the end of the corridor, a ladder awaits. The guards tell him to climb up, shock batons at the ready. He’s already connected the dots. They’re putting him in the dropship. They’re sending him to Earth.

The dropship is filled with people he knows, people he's grown up with, all locked up for crimes varying in severity. They’re now strapped into chairs across the levels of the ship. Some are unconscious in their harnesses, clearly put down for trying to fight back. Most of the ones still awake look frightened. None of them are meant to be there.

“Pipe down now”, one of the guards calls out.

A boy Wells is quite familiar with, Nathan Miller, son of the chief guard of Alpha Station, tells him where he can stick it with language more colorful than Wells has heard in a long time. The others laugh despite the tense situation. Wells chuckles alongside them, the sense of open rebellion intoxicating. He knows some of them have been in the box for years. They must have a sense of community, a united front.

He only ever learned to rebel in secret, the legacy of his father weighing on his shoulders. Which reminds him he's not one of them. He's not supposed to die with them.

“Especially you, Miller”, the guard says. The hum of electricity is clear in the air.

Miller doesn’t look nervous, but he quiets down nonetheless.

Wells is taken to the lower level. He can feel their eyes on him. A leg stretches out in front of him, but he gets around it. The boy it belongs to sends him a smirk.

“Sit.”

He suppresses a gasp as he turns to see the person in the seat next to the one he's assigned to. His best friend’s head is resting against the side of the seat, her eyes closed. “Clarke?”

She doesn't react. He can't say he's surprised they had to subdue her. She was locked up for treason after all.

“Sit.”

He follows the order and gets strapped in. Clarke remains unresponsive by his side. The guards move around to do final checks before climbing back up on the higher level.

It's completely silent for a moment, like everyone's holding their breaths. A door is slammed shut, secured. The hum of the machines switching on all at once is deafening. It takes a few minutes before they move. Just slightly.

The first nudge heightens the tension in the air. Some are praying under their breaths, the words turning into an uneven tune over the machine noise.

They move again, slightly more. Someone's crying. Wells is stuck in a numb place in his head. He knows what's happening to them. The others don't. They can only guess at the manner of their mass execution.

He doesn't know what will happen if they do survive. The Ark will come down in their wake and suddenly they're all going to be living on the ground happily? It doesn't seem likely.

There's an ear-piercing noise, steel scratching against steel, and they're moving. The harness digs into Wells’ shoulders as the shoot towards the Earth. They’re sinking, sinking. It feels too fast, but there has to be rockets or a parachute or both.

“What the --” Clarke snaps awake suddenly. She groans, stretching her neck, before she sees Wells and freezes. “No.”

“Hi to you too.”

“What the _fuck_ , Wells?”

He lowered his voice. “It’s happening, Clarke. The ground.”

Clarke takes in her surroundings. “The... ground.”

“They’re sending us down to the ground.”

“What?” Clarke’s eyes glaze over as she connects the dots. “The expendables”, she whispers.

Wells nods. Clarke reaches out for his hand and he takes it.

“Boy, are we screwed.”

“Yup.”

“Wouldn’t wanna die with anyone else.”

“Don’t go soft on me, Griffin.” 

Clarke grins, but it turns into a silent scream as they’re thrown back when the ship hits something. Hard. They’re falling even faster. The landing devices should be activating already, but the ship is threatening to spin. The lights turn off suddenly and he can't hear anything but the jets.

When the parachute unfolds, the impact punches the breath out of Wells’ lungs. He’s knocked against the side of the seat in the final collision, and as they finally still, the hum of the machines slowly quieting down, he loses consciousness with Clarke’s hand still in his.

\--

When Raven spots Jackson, Abby's right-hand man, he's right where she wants him. Jackson’s only few years older than her, and she used to see him around as a kid. This shouldn't be too hard.

“Hey there.”

Jackson startles as he looks up and finds her right in front of her. He looks around but there's no one else in the room. Abby's already finished for the day and he's left to clean up.

“H-hi.”

Raven offers him a smile. “I was just wondering if you could give a girl a hand.”

Jackson swallows roughly but squares his shoulders. “Of course!”

“Great! You see”, she steps closer and he's trapped between her and the desk, “I ran into a bit of a problem today. I wanted to go visit someone in the Box, but I got turned back at the door. And I've been trying to figure out why such an... unfortunate thing happened.”

“I, uh, I'm not really on top of any of that --”

“But certainly you could be on top of a lot of things.”

It's a little sad how quickly her words take effect. She can almost hear Finn laughing. Jackson glances down at her, and she fights a look of disdain.

“There’s always shit breaking in there. You know how it is.”

“Oh, I do. Since I am the one sent to fix them. See, your boss told me earlier there was a virus of some sort... You know, one of those...” She snaps her fingers.

“Easily transmissible?” Jackson suggests with a grimace.

“Yes, yes. One of those. Or I think that’s what it was. Silly me - I just can't quite remember. So many flaws... in the system.” Raven bites her lip with a hint of exaggeration - she doesn't have to be proud of it.

“I-I'd have to check in with her. I think I heard something about an airlock. I-I mean virus”, Jackson stammers.

“No need.” Raven pats his cheek briskly. “I got what I came for.”

She leaves without another word, already focused on her next task. Jackson was but a confirmation to her gut feeling. She needs better intel and fast.

“Where's the fire, Reyes? Hopefully not literally.”

She rests her hands on top of the table Sinclair is working at. He's been her mentor of sorts ever since she joined The Ark’s team of mechanics. The head of engineering is the closest she can get to the chain of command. He raises a brow at her.

“Something's up.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Skybox’s shut down. They claim it's a virus but I don't think so. Something's going on. I can feel it.”

Sinclair sets down his screwdriver and rolls his shoulders. They crack loudly. “You've been investigating then?”

“A little. But I swear this is something real. I’ve asked around. To me it sounded like they don’t have their story straight. Jackson should know. He works at medical.”

He stares at her for a moment. After all these years she still can't quite read him.

“Doctor Griffin?”

“Most definitely.”

Sinclair sighs. “If i look into it, will you promise to stop asking around? Don’t want you getting into trouble.”

“Think nosiness will get me floated?”

“You’re family, Reyes. Don’t need any more of it executed.”

Raven doesn’t say another word. She knows Sinclair’s husband was floated for a misunderstanding years and years ago; a mistake with no chance of correction. He never found someone else. He hates when she jokes about death, but it’s the way she copes. With a mother who drank herself to death and a brother on death row, an attitude problem is the least of her problems.

“I'll see what I can find out, okay? You try to stay out of it in the meantime.”

She nods. Sinclair just shakes his head and sends her away.

\--

Wells comes to and there’s a sharp pain in the back of his head. Clarke’s calling his name, and as he opens his eyes her worried face is close to his.

“You scared me”, she sighs in relief. “Let’s get you unwrapped.”

He leans back with a groan while Clarke unbuckles his harness. Others have managed to get down as well and started looking for a way out. Wells stands up carefully and stumbles immediately as someone walks into him. Clarke gasps, grabbing a hold of both of them.

“Dude, you’re bleeding. Sit down.” She forces the boy to Wells’ seat. There’s a scream, sudden and pitchy, and panic flares up around them. Clarke signs for him to go see what’s going on while she’s trying to check on the boy’s head wound.

People are gathered around something on the ground. Wells pushes through the crowd. There’s someone on the floor, unmoving. He takes a steadying breath before crouching down. He checks for a pulse, checks again. There’s nothing.

Moving the boy’s hair off his face, Wells is able to identify him. Collins, locked up for an illegal spacewalk, only 19. With a sigh he returns to Clarke.

“What is it?”

“A body. Someone’s dead.”

Clarke stays silent for a few seconds. “Surprising that it’s only one.”

“Hey! I found the door!”

“For the love of”, Clarke mutters and rushes off.

Wells goes after her, his head still spinning. He knows what she’s thinking, but he just can’t worry about twenty things at once like she does. A boy is dead. But they’re alive. They’re on Earth. But not all of them made it.

“Hold on! Don’t open it!”

“Here to ruin the party, Griffin?” a boy called John Mbege scoffs. He’s holding some kind of a tool meant for getting the panel blocking the door removed. “I didn’t know you were locked up.”

“Solitary. That’s where the real party’s at.”

Mbege rolls his eyes. Someone steps in front of him and everyone falls silent. They all know him. Bellamy Blake. He was a janitor on The Ark, but that wasn’t what made him famous.

Bellamy Blake was the only person on The Ark with a real sibling.

“Unless you have something else to offer, I suggest we open this door”, Bellamy says slowly, his arms crossed over his chest.

Wells moves slightly closer to his best friend. She has an unfortunate habit of getting in the wrong people’s faces.

“I guess getting us all killed by radiation is no big deal.”

“We can’t stay in this bucket. If there’s radiation we’re dead anyway.” Bellamy turns to Mbege. “Open it.”

Wells puts a hand on Clarke’s shoulder before she can say anything else. Bellamy’s right and Clarke knows it, but she’d fight anyway.

“What are you talking about?”

“Radiation?”

He stops the chatter by speaking up. “We’re on the ground. They sent us here because The Ark is falling apart. By reducing population, they’re saving air.”

A silence follows. It’s only broken by a clear voice.

“Bellamy?”

The look on Bellamy’s face is pure relief. A girl, visibly younger than anyone else on the ship, climbs down the rest of the steps of the ladder from the higher floor. She would disappear from sight if the people around her weren’t making way for her.

Octavia Blake smiles brightly at her brother, who moves swiftly to stand between her and everyone else’s prying eyes.

“O. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She nods, then shakes her head. Bellamy pulls her into tight hug. Everyone watches quietly. They all know the story of the Blakes, but few actually knew them. To most they'd seemed more like a legend.

The moment only lasts for so long.

“So what’s gonna happen when we open the door?”

Wells realises after a second that the question is directed at him. “Uh. If the radiation levels are too high, we’ll all, well, die. There has been no clear evidence of the Earth being survivable. But the lack of evidence in general means... it could be.”

“So we might as well open the door.” Bellamy nods to Mbege again.

No one disagrees, but the ship is quiet as the panel is wrenched off the door. A poor fail safe, Wells notes. They really had no idea if the ship would make it to the ground.

Bellamy pulls the lever that opens the door. The brightness that comes through blinds them, but only for a moment.

The Earth is green, so green. Long grass sways in the wind. The deep green leaves of the trees hang heavily towards the ground. Moss covers the surface of rocks and the trunks of trees.

“Whoa”, Octavia sighs.

As beautiful as it is, no one seems to want to move. They look around at each other, slightly ashamed, waiting for someone to be braver than they are.

Wells considers going, but Clarke's squeezing his hand tightly. He realizes she's afraid. It's not a good sign. Clarke never lives in the moment and she's no doubt already thought up at least sixteen hardships for them to face. It's something he'll worry about later because a boy is pushing through the crowd and stepping on the ramp.

His name is Monty, and he's moving steadily towards the end. He only stops before the very last step as if to take a breath. Nothing happens when his feet hit the ground. Monty turns around to face them and shrugs.

Suddenly they're all pushing out of the dropship at once. Wells pulls Clarke with him carefully. They follow Bellamy and Octavia down the ramp. Octavia jumps down, her hand in Bellamy's. She looks back and grins at Wells. He manages to smile back.

The ground is softer than he'd imagined. The dropship took out a few layers in landing, and they're now standing in a mix of sand and dirt.

“We did it.”

“Yeah.” Clarke's staring up at the sky, for once seeming speechless.

The sun is warm on their skins and the wind throws Clarke's hair around. She tries to comb it back down with little success. Wells laughs.

For once the sound doesn't seem too loud. Everyone's yelling and laughing around him. And not one of them is too loud.

\--

Raven rushes into Sinclair’s workspace. She’s missing dinner but she doesn’t care. He sent someone for her, and it must mean he’s got something.

“What’s going on? Did you find something?”

Sinclair takes a while to arrange things on his desk and wipe his hands before looking up. “Turns out I didn’t have to go looking. They came to me.”

“What? Why?” She takes a seat opposite him, failing once again to read his expression.

“They have a job for me - well, possibly for the entire team.”

“Just tell me.”

“The Ark is falling apart”, Sinclair says.

Raven just stares at him. The Ark is always falling apart. It's what keeps them in business.

“We're losing areas due to deteriorating. People are forced to live tighter together. But there's a malfunction in the air filters and oxygen levels are dropping. There's leaks and complete shutdowns...”

“What does it mean?”

“I don't know if you remember Jake Griffin? He discovered the flaw a few months ago, and estimated that we had about six to eight months - up to a year - before a complete shutdown. And that was unless The Ark came apart before that.”

“And they floated him for it too.”

“They did. And it's not out in the open now, either.”

“Yeah, yeah. So what's going on now?”

“A hundred prisoners were sent to the ground to save air, to relieve the remaining population even just slightly.”

She doesn't know if she realized it moments earlier, but it's only when he says the words that it hits her.

“Finn was among them.”

Raven shakes her head. No.

“They were equipped with wristbands that track their vitals so it could be determined whether Earth is survivable or not --”

Raven scoffs. “And to not be forced to communicate with the kids they sent to die.”

“I'm not aware what kind of communication systems the dropship had but... Something went wrong with the landing and we lost contact. But the wristbands that didn't fail seem to be showing good signs.”

She speaks before really even taking it in. “Let me go down.” It's the only way.

Sinclair leans back and closes his eyes. She knows he's thought it all through already, but he has to think of what's best for everyone. “There's no time, Raven. They're going to reduce population again. The priority is to find a way to repair the air filters and - and possibly start preparing the remaining dropships.” 

“We'll find a way”, she says with confidence she doesn't yet have. She has to believe. Believe in the chance to save Finn, to find out what happened, to die in attempt.

Most of her friends, her family, are down there. She won't fail.

\--

The wonder fades out eventually. Clarke disappears back inside the dropship, and Wells follows her. He doesn't stay for long, though, instead carefully carrying out the body. When he returns, Clarke hands him a shovel without a word.

The ground is soft behind the dropship, but Wells goes a bit further anyway. It's harder to dig, his muscles aching, but it feels good. Grounding.

He doesn't know if the boy just doesn't have anyone or if everyone's too busy to grieve yet. Still, after patting down the mound over the grave, Wells stands there for a moment. So close to freedom, no one deserves a fate like this.

Clarke’s discovered the food supply when he walks slowly back into the dropship. She’s muttering to herself as she counts the packets.

“So that’s it for your moment in the sun?”

“I love your jokes, Wells, but I’m trying to keep us alive.”

“Clarke. We survived the drop. I think it’s okay to appreciate that.”

Clarke huffs and drops what she’s holding to glare at him. “Are you seeing anyone else doing this?”

“Oh, is it martyr o’clock already?”

She holds on for a few more seconds before her glare breaks. “Fine. I’ll tone it down. Would you help me at least?”

Wells gives her a smile. “Yes.”

Clarke starts over her count while he goes over the other panels for other supplies. There’s blankets and large containers that turn out to be empty. He assumes for collecting food or water. Finally, a panel reveals a small screen where a video starts playing scratchily.

“Clarke!”

“You made me lose count again!”

“No, Clarke”, he hisses. “Get over here. It’s -- It’s Kane.”

That catches her attention and she scrambles up. The video’s on loop and they watch it three times in complete silence.

“This is vice chancellor Kane speaking. Prisoners of The Ark, you have been given a second chance. You were chosen to be the first one hundred people of The Ark to be sent to the ground. On your wrists you can find wristbands that keep check of your vitals. It is essential that you do not try to remove the bands. Without earlier knowledge we can’t be sure how communications will function, but we will try to establish a connection as soon as possible.

You should find a map of the area from the drawer below. The drop point was chosen near an old military base called Mount Weather. Besides the food we have supplied, the mountain should provide you with more necessary equipment.

You are the future of mankind. Take this responsibility seriously and do your best to survive this challenge. May we meet again.”

“Well fuck me.”

Wells shakes his head as the video starts playing once again. “That's it?”

Clarke gets the map out and folds it open carefully. “We need to go find this mountain.”

“We need to show this to everyone”, Wells corrects her.

Clarke stares at him defiantly for a moment before rolling her eyes so hard it must hurt. “Fine, let's be gracious and waste time.”

“Glad we agree.”

Everyone is still scattered around in the woods surrounding the dropship. They're lying around in the grass, attempting to climb trees, picking flowers. It's like a scene from a children’s picture book. Wells stops in the middle of the ramp, wondering how to actually get their attention.

“Hey, Bellamy!”

The man turns around and raises a brow at him. Octavia’s sitting on a rock close by, weaving flowers together.

He explains what they found, and while Bellamy's stance remains the same, his eyes flicker to his sister at the mention of The Ark. Wells pretends not to notice and keeps his face neutral. His curiosity is an intense pressure at the back of his mind, but he can't create a distraction by making Bellamy defensive.

“I'll go see. Keep an eye on her.” Bellamy nods towards Octavia, who's still oblivious to the things happening around her.

Wells doesn't get a word in before he's gone. He looks back and forth between the ship and the girl. Bellamy's not his keeper, but... he seems to have enough on his mind as it is.

Octavia looks up as he moves closer. She grins again, inviting him closer with a wave. She has freckles all over the brown skin of her cheeks and on the bridge of her nose, just like her brother. “Hi! I'm Octavia. Who are you?”

“I'm, uh, Wells. Hi.”

“Do you want a necklace?” She holds up the flowers.

“You don't have to give me yours --”

“I'll make more!”

He's right by her side then, bowing his head as she places the flowers around his neck. Octavia claps her hands excitedly.

“It looks beautiful on you.”

“Thank you.”

She stares at him with wide eyes, her chin resting on her palms. Wells clears his throat. Fortunately Bellamy returns from the dropship and tells him to go with a look.

“Bye Wells!”

He waves back on his way to where he knows Clarke is still. She's locked up the food supply since he left, and while the video is still playing, she's ignoring it in order to continue inventory.

“What did he say?”

She doesn't look up. “Just watched it a few times. On the third loop he was clearly planning something.”

Bellamy's voice carries in from outside. It's strong and deep, rousing. “Listen up!”

Even Clarke stops to listen - though she pretends not to. Bellamy tells the others to go hear out the video. It's smart. Seeing it isn't necessary and the screen is small. Clarke notices too and she doesn't look pleased about it.

They leave the dropship as it starts to fill up. As they stand there, Clarke looks uncomfortable but she stays quiet. It doesn't take long before people follow them back outside, talking in hushed tones.

Wells is shaken when a boy walks up to him and jabs him in the chest with a finger. “This is all your fault. You and your dad’s.”

“It's Kane on the video. What are you on about?”

“Your dad is the chancellor. You think Kane makes any decisions?”

“You think he would've sent his own son down here?” Clarke pushes forward but she's stopped by Wells’ grip on her arm.

“We can't know he had anything to do with this --”

“Your dad’s a murderer!” someone yells from the crowd that's formed around them.

“He's doing his job. Like the people chose him to.”

“You don't think it's hard for him to make the decisions he has to make?” Clarke adds again.

“Like you even know the definition of hard work”, Bellamy scoffs. There's a crown of flowers on top of his head, the look of no less than a king.

“I'll have you know I work hard every day to become a doctor --”

“A profession of choice!” Bellamy turns to the crowd. “One we weren't as lucky to get when we were working to earn our rations.”

The people yell out their agreements.

“They sent us down here to be their test subjects! Whether we die or not, it's all for the greater good! We're expendable to them; not even worth our trials!”

The crowd is vibrating with energy at Bellamy's speech. Wells looks around with worry. A group like this in a whole new environment needs guidelines to function properly. And Bellamy Blake is about to gain the power to set them.

“What about the things we share?” Clarke speaks up, of course. “Our families, our _people_. The Ark's first citizens swore to hold on to the heritage of the Earth and keep it alive for future generations in hopes of getting to return to the ground once more. Well, here we are. We're on the ground. But there's still our cultures, our heritage up there. And it deserves to survive as much as we do.”

It seems to hit them. Their families are still on The Ark. Their parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors. They're all alone down here.

Bellamy shakes his head. “ _My people_ didn't execute my mother for having a second child. _My people_ didn't send that child down here alone to die. _My people_... My people are here already as far as I'm concerned.” 

Cheers break out, and Wells knows they've lost. Bellamy's got a way with people and he's not all wrong. But Wells is still not one of them. He still cares about their people up in space. He still believes in the future they were always described.

Clarke's muttering to herself again. She stomps off to the dropship. A few people slip after her. Wells waits until it seems like no one else is going to sneak in before following.

“We're going to Mount Weather, right?” Monty asks Clarke. He’s leaning against the ladder, the opposite of her nervous energy.

“Yes.” Clarke cuts the harnesses off a few seats and starts assembling them on Monty’s gangly friend’s back. He sends an alarmed look to Monty, but lets Clarke manhandle him. “We need to find those supplies. There's a chance the mountain could also be a residence for us. We don't know how cold it'll get as the seasons change.”

Wells moves to where she has the map open. Clarke’s attempted to plan the route - she was always worse at it than him. Still, it doesn't look like a short trip. He glances at Monty and his friend. “You want to come?”

“It sounds like fun”, Monty shrugs. “And as cute as Blake is, I do actually still wanna talk to my parents.”

His friend snorts. “You've got no chance at Blake.”

“Shut up, Jasper.”

“Both of you shut up. We need to get going right away”, Clarke snaps. She shoves a few ration packs into the makeshift backpack she’s created on Jasper’s back. “We'll need to find water on the way.”

“Is she always this... uptight?” Jasper asks Wells after she's stomped away.

“That's a way to put it.”

Clarke's suddenly yelling and they rush outside. She tries to wring the tool out of Miller’s hands. Wristbands are scattered at their feet and there’s a small line of people waiting behind the boy.

“You can't take them off! They'll think we're dying!”

“So?” Bellamy raises a brow. “Wanna go next?”

“Go to hell”, Clarke spits.

Bellamy laughs. “What about you, Wells? Want a taste of freedom?”

He doesn't reply. Bellamy winks at him, and he looks away. He won't be charmed.

“We're going to find Mount Weather. It's the only way for us to survive.”

“Sounds like a plan. You work for the rest of us once.”

Clarke's glaring daggers at Bellamy. Wells steps forward, still ignoring his eyes. “We can't carry enough for all of us by ourselves.”

“Not my problem.”

Clarke's clearly had enough. She starts for the edge of the woods, Monty and Jasper following leisurely. Wells stays back just for a moment. He doesn't know what he's waiting for - Bellamy doesn't seem like the type to change his mind.

He's nearly out of range when he hears Bellamy's voice.

“Miller. Wanna go check it out?” A pause. “Take the mean looking one with you.”

Two boys follow in Wells’ footsteps and he can't help smiling just slightly.

\--

Raven follows Sinclair down the corridors of The Ark. They have to take a detour after another area’s been shut down for “construction”. The door they stop by is locked, but Sinclair has the keycode.

“What is this place?”

The door closes behind them. Sinclair’s moving around, turning on lights and clearing space on the desks.

“Old storage space. There's damage building in this wing and they've been slowly emptying it out in case of an emergency. It's mostly secluded around here.”

“People still live here.”

Sinclair doesn't look at her. “I know. There's no space to move them out yet. And the oxygen levels are still high enough.”

Raven shakes her head. “So what are we doing here?”

“The plan.” Sinclair pulls a tarp off something in the corner. Raven immediately recognizes it as one of the old escape pods they repurposed ages ago.

“You kept one?”

“It might be old but it's not completely outdated. I figured a model would make repairs easier if we ever faced a situation like this.”

“We're going to build a new one?”

“No.” Sinclair pats the side of the pod. “ _You're_ going to repair this one. And go to the ground.”

“What about you?” Raven frowns.

“I'll make sure no one suspects anything. I'm still needed on the repairs. The people here need all the help they can get.” Sinclair pulls a walkie out of his pocket and hands it over. “This is connected to the control room where they monitor the 100. It's the best timer I can give you. Don't miss curfews. I'll tell others you're working on the pipelines. Can you do this?”

Raven touches her chest where the pendant is resting under her shirt. “Of course I can.”

Sinclair smiles and it's too sad to be a proud one. They don't talk about it. They never do.

She gets to work right away. The pod is not untouched. There's parts missing, the control panel is old school. But all she needs is to make sure it survives a drop. One launch is all it takes.

\--

The sun is moving steadily across the sky as they tread through the woods. It's been hours without water and Clarke’s prompt pace isn't helping their case. Still, the weather is beautiful and there's so many sounds around them. Wells has already grown to love the wind in the trees. Monty tries to whistle alongside a bird’s call.

Miller and the other boy caught up with them way back. They don't seem to be friends with each other so they're not talking either.

Wells has never walked this much in his life. The burn in his muscles is incredible. It's like he's never lived before, like he's experiencing walking, breathing, _being_ for the first time.

“Can you hear that?” Monty asks.

Everyone but Clarke stops. The sound is faint but it's there.

“Water!”

They're all running, trying not to trip on the slippery moss and the tree roots coiling around each other. Clarke's yelling at them to wait but they won't.

The river falls down a shallow cliff and into a steady stream, its water clear. The sound it makes as it falls is like a song, but they can't appreciate it just yet. Jasper’s the first to jump in with all his clothes still on. They cheer while peeling off layers and kicking off shoes.

The chilliness is nothing compared to the feeling of floating. Monty holds onto his hand, laughing brightly, as he lies in the sway of the stream. Even Miller’s smiling and he splashes Clarke who's still ashore.

“Come on, Griffin! Live a little!”

It's enough like a challenge, and Clarke lets her jacket fall to the ground. She strips down to her underwear before jumping in with a scream.

As she splashes Miller back, a full blown water fight begins. There's no sides but Wells and Clarke have the others begging for mercy through breathless giggles in no time. Miller’s a good second but the boy identified as just ‘Murphy’ is no use as a teammate.

“I love the ground”, Monty sighs, shielding his eyes from the sun.

They're lying on the rocks by the water eating dinner. The food is the same as they served on The Ark, but it's the best meal Wells has ever had.

“We should get going soon. We need to find a place for the night before it gets dark.” Clarke squeezes water out of her hair before getting up.

“How much more is there?”

“We have about the same distance to cross tomorrow as today.”

“Next time I'm telling Blake to just go himself”, Murphy huffs.

Clarke ignores him. “We should drink from the waterfall before we go. It's cleaner.”

“Hey, was your wristband working before we jumped in?”

They all freeze at Jasper’s question. Wells’ still has its light on, Clarke finds hers with a sigh of relief. Monty’s is still functioning, but Jasper’s seems to have died.

“Okay, no more swimming”, Clarke snaps.

They drink in silence before continuing their way. Night starts to fall, but Clarke's packed a flashlight. Walking’s no longer such a joy; the treetops cover the moon and any light it could bring. There's more stumbling and their pace slows down significantly.

“Shouldn't we just sleep here?”

“Just a little more.”

“No, Clarke. We can't see a thing.” Wells stops and leans against a tree. He's exhausted. The day’s been long and the physical strain is still new.

“Fine! We'll sleep here in the middle of the woods. Let's do that.” Clarke throws up her arms.

They start looking for a good spot to lie down in. Clarke's set the light on top of a tree stump to help a little. All in all it seems they hadn't really thought this through before.

The muffled yelp doesn't really register with them until the crash. It's silent for a second before they're scrambling for the light.

“What the hell was that?” Miller demands, pointing the flashlight around to see.

Monty gasps. “Where's Jasper?”

“What?” Clarke grabs the light from Miller.

“Where did he go?”

“Jasper? Jasper!”

“He can't be far. Come on.” Wells moves carefully in the direction he last saw the boy in.

“Jasper! Jasper, come on! This is not funny!”

“Oh my god.” Clarke's voice is barely audible. She gags, stepping back.

Wells gets to her first. She stands next to a deep, deep hole. The wooden spikes standing up from the bottom are crimson where they've pierced through flesh. He swallows the bile trying to rise up his throat.

“Don't let him closer.”

Miller grabs Monty but they're too close already. He sees the spikes, only the tips but it's enough. He screams. He screams so loudly their ears ring when the sound cuts off into sobs.

Clarke's hand finds Wells’ and he holds on as tightly as he can. Miller’s still holding onto Monty whose legs give in. He looks helpless, and Monty can barely breathe.

They're all helpless. They stand in silence.

\--

“Another six bands are off, Doctor.”

Raven turns up the radio without taking her eyes off the bolt she's unscrewing.

“Show me.” Abby Griffin’s been at the control room for a few minutes now. They've checked the weather forecast and tracked almost all of the functional wristbands.

“These five went off nearly simultaneously. The sixth over here where the group of six was moving north.”

“Radiation?”

“Vitals show no sign of it. They found water and their blood sugar levels went up earlier in the day. We're assuming malfunction, a bout of illness or sudden trauma for now.”

“Good. Keep tracking them. They must be heading for Mount Weather.”

“Well... soon after the signal went off the remaining five turned back. They're returning to the dropship.”

Abby sighs loudly. “I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Let me know if they head off again.”

Raven hates her just a little more in that moment. No sympathy for the kids she sent down to die, no respect for their will to survive and not just complete a mission. She works just a little faster.

“Should we attempt to make contact? The storm approaching from the east will reach them within a day.”

“No. We'll see if they're really up to the task here.”

“It could cause casualties if they don't stay sheltered --”

“Do not make contact until I give the order. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Doctor Griffin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * raven's brother finn dies in the landing, monty's best friend jasper dies at the end of the chapter


	2. Chapter 2

The dawn isn’t ready to break yet when they reach the camp, breathless and covered in cold sweat. Bellamy’s sitting on the ramp, but he jumps up when they appear suddenly.

“Back so soon?”

Clarke tries to snap back at him but she hasn’t caught her breath enough. Bellamy turns to Miller who clears his throat, glancing at Monty before speaking up.

“We’re not alone.”

\--

When everyone’s awake, it suddenly feels more real. They left The Ark with 100, they reached the ground with 99. They left the camp with six, they returned with five. Two percent in less than 24 hours. Radiation or not, they’re already failing.

“Tell it again.”

“What happened?”

Wells has heard it one too many times now. They were in the woods. Yes, they found water. It was getting dark. No, they didn’t see anyone else. They just wanted to rest. Yes, Jasper is dead. Someone set a trap.

“The last person born on the ground died on The Ark”, Diggs insists. Wells doesn’t really know him but he’s Mbege’s friend.

“Tell that to the kid”, Murphy scoffs.

Wells glances back and he knows Monty’s heard it. He’s sitting away from the others with his friend Harper. He hasn’t said a thing since they came back.

“Shut up”, Bellamy says calmly. “How do you know it’s not an old trap?”

“It hadn’t grown shut like it should’ve in 150 years. It wasn’t fresh but it wasn’t that old”, Wells explains. He’s tired. They haven’t slept all night. He just wants to rest.

“Whoever it is that’s out there, we need to stay alert.” Bellamy looks through the crowd around him. “Before we can start building a home for ourselves here, we need to guarantee our safety. There’s trees all around us. I say we build a fence - tall enough to keep them out.”

“We don’t have time for a fence. We need to find more food. We still need to get to Mount Weather.” Clarke stands up from where she was sitting on the ground. “There might be weapons there. It’s a military base after all.”

“And if there aren’t?”

Clarke rolls her eyes. “Let’s assume there are.”

“We should vote. There’s no leaders on the ground after all.” The smile Bellamy flashes at her is the most insincere.

They could build the wall and then go for the mountain. Or send a group for the mountain again while the rest build the fence. But Wells is too tired to try to have the two compromise. It’s a problem for a later time.

The fence wins the vote. Bellamy starts to issue posts for everyone. Some to build tools, others to work the few axes they got from The Ark. A group is sent to where the river comes closest to the dropsite with the barrel to get water. A few individuals are put on watch.

There’s a small group forming around Bellamy, a handful of people who seem to trust his word over everyone else’s. Wells knows all of them, but that doesn't make it any clearer to him as to why they've chosen to follow Bellamy. It's possible they knew him before; most of them are from the same station.

Harper’s walking Monty into the dropship, and Wells goes with them. Clarke follows him begrudgingly. Murphy’s already out of sight. Miller attempts to stay outside, but he’s sent in by Bellamy with a pat on the shoulder. The smile he gives Bellamy is surprisingly genuine.

Wells slumps down on someone's bunk and he's out in a matter of seconds.

\--

“Jaha’s going to make it.”

Raven starts listening again, her hands stilling.

“No... problems with the surgery?”

“What are you implying?” Abby sounds amused.

“It wasn't you, was it?”

Abby harrumphs loudly. “No, Jackson, I did not order an assassination on our chancellor.”

Raven’s jaw drops. She saw an old movie once in the mess hall. Turns out it's got nothing on reality.

“I did just save him... for now. He's in a coma. It's hard to predict if he'll pull through, but it's best for us that he remains alive for the time being. A death would lead to a reelection.”

“Isn't Kane a shoo-in for the job?”

“Yes. But. We have to be absolutely sure. Whatever's going on right now is promising some... uncertain times.”

Jackson doesn't reply. There's footsteps, some shuffling, something gets picked up and put down. Raven waits, holding her breath.

“This one. What happened?”

“Nothing seems to have caused the shutdown. Like we saw in the landing, at least third of the bands lost connection just with the distance. With the storm approaching we'll definitely lose more - possibly all, which won't help our case.” 

“As far as we know the ground is survivable. There's no sign of radiation in the vitals. We stick to that. Exodus is still underway.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Footsteps approach.

“Ah. Sinclair. How are the ships looking?”

Sinclair clears his throat. “Better than expected. It's just that... The ships are not fit to carry this many people.”

“Even with the culling plan?”

“There's a plan?”

Abby's voice moves closer to the radio receiver. “The entire population was never expected to make it down to the ground. Sacrifices must be made.”

“Right... Well, the ships will accommodate approximately 1000 people. That's less than half of our population.”

There's no answer.

“Is there any progress to introduce Exodus to the people?”

Raven knows Sinclair’s trying to keep Abby talking. She's a little horrified to hear more.

“Not at the moment. But the remaining signals of the 100 are looking just fine.”

“Do you have individual information?”

Jackson replies just a touch too quickly before catching himself. “Just”, he clears his throat. “Just anonymous signals.”

Raven’s nails dig into her palms. They know if Finn is okay, but they'll never tell.

There's so much at work at once. If the people don't find out about the 100, they'll get sacrificed for the good of the ones in charge. But telling them now would risk her getting to the ground and finding out what happened to the prisoners. The timing needs to be perfect for them to succeed.

“I'll be waiting for your report again tomorrow.”

“Of course.” Sinclair's footsteps recede. Raven knows exactly how long it takes for him to walk across the station back to Mecha. He starts talking as soon as he's in through the door, as in nothing's different. “How's it looking?”

Raven stares at him. “What happened to the chancellor?”

Sinclair stops and sighs. “He was shot.”

“By whom? When? Is -- Is Wells okay?”

“On the day of the launch. I don't have information on Wells’ whereabouts, but I'm assuming no news is good news. Kane is the acting chancellor now, either way.”

“Who did it?”

“I heard a name, but he seems to have gone missing.” Sinclair picks up his tablet and types something in. He turns it around for Raven to see.

\--

A lot of things can be said about Bellamy Blake, but if he’s something it’s efficient. When Monty wakes up after a few hours of exhausted sleep turned into nightmare images of falling, everyone is working away. The wall is starting to take shape, just lacking in height. They've taken down trees but mainly the structure is scrap metal from the dropship.

Harper’s across the yard, yelling at some guys for doing something wrong. Jasper would've laughed and Harper would've glared at the both of them.

The boy that died on the first day - Monty didn't know him that well. It had seemed almost unreal that someone died. In the Skybox, it rarely felt like they were actually just waiting for a death sentence. It got boring, sure, but he wasn't alone, there was always something going on within a group of teens.

Then again, they rarely found out what actually happened to those who got out. Chances were, many of them ended up in the airlock. But the rest kept living in lockup, unaware.

When they survived the landing, they were invincible for a moment. Monty took the first step on the ground. Maybe he did get immortalized a bit just then. But it turned out none of it mattered.

He catches a snippet of someone's conversation as he walks around. “What must've the people done to survive a nuclear war”, they were saying. “What had they become in the aftermath.”

There are people on the ground. They can't know if the groundspeople are anything like them anymore. Who sets an inhumane trap like that? Animals falling into it could've suffered immensely before anyone found them.

“They must be crazy, savage, barbaric.” They must. They must. They must.

“Hey. You okay?”

He looks up to see Roma, a girl who lived in the cell next to his, frowning at him. Her hand is still hovering over her head where she was trying to brush leaves off her headscarf.

Monty nods. He keeps going, but Roma grabs his arm, slowing him down.

“Monty. We're -- It's almost time for salat. Would you like to join us?”

“No. Thank you.” He can't sit still. He doesn't want to think, pray, feel. The compassion won't bring Jasper back. There's an anger bubbling somewhere in him and he doesn't want to think about it.

On The Ark, a number of Earth’s old religions were preserved by the ones practicing them. They adapted to life in space, gaining more following on some stations more than others. Things changed at the end of the century, when the remains of the planet were still hidden behind a curtain of ash and smoke.

People were losing their faith. The future seemed as dark as the Earth looked. At the fear of fading away, laws were made to have everyone still learn, to memorize the base of each religion. Even if faith wasn't found, the knowledge wouldn't be lost on those whose parents no longer taught their kids the ways they were raised by.

When the smoke was finally starting to clear, a new era of faith bloomed again. Parents joined their children in prayers that they never did forget. There was no guilt in being rusty. Everyone was welcomed back with open arms. Still, a large section of those who distanced themselves from faith remained.

“Okay.” Roma nods. “We can still talk later if you'd like?”

Monty shrugs. He just needs to get away. Roma lets him go. He was going to go find Bellamy and join the workers, but he just needs to walk.

He heads for the woods.

\--

There's been no news of another culling approaching. Raven keeps it in mind as she checks every part of the engines, the landing system, checks twice. There's still hope.

She films a video. She knows Sinclair would do it himself, but she can't let him do that. She'll be on her way to the ground when it airs all across The Ark. The people will find out about the 100. There'll be no more sacrifices for the greater good.

The control panel’s mainly a dud. There's no autopilot, barely any meters work. She'll have to land the thing herself. It's risky, but they can't afford to go looking for new parts. The parachute works and that's all that matters. She'll get to Earth.

“Abby. The storm has almost reached them. You have to warn them.” Sinclair's voice doesn't show the desperation Raven knows he feels.

“This was all done so that we would learn the ground’s conditions and whether they are survivable or not. Our weather forecasts may not work anymore once we get to the ground. How will we survive then? Assisted survival does not count.”

“You gave them food, tools, directions. How is this any different?”

“It is. Now return to your post and remember we put you in this job. We can always take it away.”

“Good luck finding my replacement.” Doors shut behind him as he walks out.

“Jackson.” Abby doesn't sound happy.

“Yes?”

“Did you do what I asked?”

“Yes, Doctor. She's working on the pipelines.”

Raven freezes.

“Did you check?”

“The... pipelines?”

“Yes.”

“Uh, no. S-should've I?”

“Go. Find. Her.”

The door of the storage room opens and Raven nearly suffers a heart attack.

“We're running out of time”, Sinclair says.

“I'll say. They're looking for me.”

Sinclair freezes just like she did moments earlier. “Go.”

“I still need to test the pressure regulator. It seems faulty --”

“Go. I'll do it. Go.”

She goes. She runs.

Once she's out of the station, she switches to a rushed walk. She needs to make it as close to the pipeline repair door as possible before they find her.

\--

The wind is picking up, clouds gathering over the treetops. Wells zips up his jacket as a shiver runs up his spine. They've used everything they possibly could on the wall, but it's still not much. Getting it higher would require more wood and a larger area of logging.

It needs to wait for now. They don't know the nuclear weapons’ full effect on the environment. It seems they'll soon find out, though.

“Bellamy.”

Wells looks up to see Clarke marching over to the man.

Bellamy manages a sneer. “Yes, Clarke?”

“Do you have a headcount?”

“Sorry?”

“Is everyone here?”

“If you're asking if I'm monitoring them like you do with the workers on The Ark, no, I'm not.”

Wells bites his lip. Clarke will never win this fight.

“The weather is getting worse. We don't know what that means. We need to make sure everyone's nearby in case it's not good.”

“I suggest you gather them, then.” Bellamy goes back to working on the stone that he's trying to whet into a weapon.

Octavia waves at Wells from behind her brother. “Bell, I can help.”

“You don't have to, O.”

“I want to.”

Bellamy lets out a sigh. Clarke looks surprised. Octavia gets up and dusts herself off before holding out a hand for her. Clarke takes it slowly. She's never been good with kids. Wells shakes his head to himself.

“Don't go too far”, Bellamy says sternly.

Octavia touches his forehead with her fingertips. It coaxes a small smile out of him.

Wells walks over to the older Blake once the two are gone. Bellamy pretends he's not there.

“Are you actually going to lead them?” Wells asks finally.

Bellamy lets his hands drop into his lap. “Why do you care?”

“Whether we like it or not, we've only got each other down here. We just gotta survive. That requires order.”

Bellamy laughs dryly. “You mean Clarke should do it?”

“No --”

“Why aren't you taking charge, Wells? You her second in command, then? Or are you afraid you'll be like your dad?”

It's not an especially rude thing to say, but Bellamy seems to regret it as soon as he says it. He goes slightly pale, averting his eyes quickly.

Wells shrugs. “I've never wanted to be my dad. I've never wanted to be in charge. But Clarke is my friend. Of course I listen to her when she's not totally wrong.”

Bellamy softens just a little, letting out a chuckle. “You'd be more bearable than her for sure.”

“You're not the first to say that”, Wells laughs.

Bellamy's quiet for a minute. “The Ark won't save us. I'll do whatever it takes to protect my sister. If that means... fighting with Clarke, I'll do it.”

“That sounds almost like a yes.”

“I have nothing against you, Wells. Hell, I even like you. But don't get in my way.” All humor’s gone from his voice.

Wells frowns. Something's not right, but he has no idea what the matter is. “I'm not a threat to you, Bellamy.”

“She is.” Bellamy nods towards where his sister disappeared with Clarke.

He still feels like he doesn't know the whole story but he doesn't ask.

A drop of water hits Wells’ cheek. The downpour falls on them with no other warning. Bellamy lets out a choked gasp as he's suddenly drenched.

It's almost like the very first day. People are yelling and running around. Bellamy wipes his wet curls out of his eyes. He laughs, shaking his head.

Octavia skips over to them. She throws her arms around Bellamy's neck. She looks happy, excited, but she's not laughing. In fact, not a sound comes out of her. The water suddenly feels icy down Wells’ back as he thinks of why.

She catches a droplet off the tip of her brother’s nose. “It's water”, she whispers.

He matches her tone as he answers. “It is. It's rain.”

Octavia smiles widely. “Rain.”

Wells walks away from them. He never wants to be in charge.

\--

The air is humid when the dropship comes to life in the early morning light. Wells shakes Clarke awake gently where they're huddled together on a cot. Her hair is standing up in all directions and she looks around grumpily.

The night had been... bad. The storm kept them up for most of it as it hit. Trees were hitting the sides of the ship and each other in the wind. It had sounded like the entire ship was creaking at its hinges, ready to come apart.

Not long after the rain started lashing the roof, every last one of the wristbands turned off at once. One minute they were fine, the next dead. He and Clarke kept theirs on until the late hours of the night before admitting defeat. They were all dead to The Ark now.

He feels too hot in his clothes after sleeping in them, but it's still too chilly to remove layers. Near the top of Clarke's panic list is pneumonia. As he's trying to move across the floor, Roma grabs his arm.

“We'll go look for Monty now, right?”

By the time they were closing the door, it became apparent that Monty was gone. Roma had seen him walk off into the woods earlier in the day, but no one saw him return. It was too late to go look for him with the dusk falling and wind picking up dangerously. They had to close the door.

“Uh, yeah. Of course.” Wells looks around for Bellamy. “We should go.”

Roma nods adamantly. Her fingers are squeezing the handle of her self-made knife on her belt.

“Opening the door!” Mbege calls.

Fog flows over the grounds, glistening in the morning sun. It's beautiful despite the storm’s remains, fallen trees and their makeshift fence torn down at the weakest points.

Monty stands by one of the fallen pieces, inspecting the damage. Roma yells out his name as she runs to him. He blinks in surprise when he gets a smack to the back of the head.

“You dick! I was worried sick.”

“I'm sorry. I got lost.”

“Were you outside the whole night?”

“No. I found something.”

“Found what?” Bellamy walks out of the dropship with the others in tow.

“A bunker.”

An interested hum of voices rises at Monty’s words. So far they haven't found any other signs of life from the ground.

“Let's go then.” Bellamy takes Octavia's hand and gestures for Monty to lead the way.

They walk through the woods, excitement overcoming the sense of alarm from before. Most of them stay at the camp. It's still too early to get adventurous.

The bunker is deep in the ground, covered by leaves and moss. Monty wrings the hatch open and climbs in. The space isn't large and the few dozens of them don't all fit in at once.

They examine in silence. There's no food, no books, barely anything.

“Does it feel to you like... we're not the first ones here raiding?” Roma asks quietly.

They all seem to agree.

“Grab anything useful that's left”, Bellamy orders. “We should get back to camp.”

They take the beddings, some candles, any dishes and towels they can find. Wells is waiting for his turn to climb out when his shoe scuffs weirdly on something. He kneels down by the rug that's only half rolled up. Underneath it is a panel, barely detectable from the floor.

“Hey. Someone lend me a knife.”

Roma hands over hers. He's able to get a hold of the small handle and pulls off the cover. It reveals a space within the floor, like a small safe. A handgun lies at the bottom.

Wells picks it up, his hand shaking lightly. He's read enough about guns to know how to check the clip. There's still bullets left. He doesn't want to think what it was stashed for.

“Not a complete bust”, Bellamy says before climbing out.

\--

Raven gets to the storage room with no one tailing her. Someone's by the radio already as she switches it on despite the early hour.

“You're sure?”

“I paid one of the other mechanics to go check. No work is being done down there.”

“Have you located her workshop?”

“We have a hunch. The mechanic tipped me off on where he's last seen her. There's an old storage room down in FAR-326. It's where the pods used to be kept in.”

“Fuck.” Raven starts frantically looking for something to hide the pod behind, but they've cleared the space too much for anything solid. “Fuck.”

“Of course.” Abby lets out a chuckle. “Go get her.”

“Raven!” Sinclair rushes in, his hands full. “You need to go. Now.”

“It's too late. They know about the pod. They're coming now!”

“No.” Sinclair hands over an old radio. “We're launching today.”

Raven blinks at him. “But the pressure regulator --”

“Here.” Sinclair pulls a spacesuit out of a duffel bag. “It's time to go, Raven.”

“I...” She shakes her head. “They'll know you took it.”

“They'll know _you_ took it. I'll go stall them. Get ready.”

“Sinclair.”

He stops. They don't say the words they should, but they hold each other tightly in a quick embrace. She can't be afraid now. They have too much hanging on this.

“Go”, Sinclair says, clearing his throat. “There's not much time.”

Raven gets in the suit before climbing into the pod. There's no time to think about the suit, lost dreams, painful acceptance. She's in complete focus mode in order to keep the fear out. The reason the pod is functional is mainly because it's still attached to its old launch pad. She's added the coordinates and can only hope it'll work.

“Time to go to Earth, Reyes”, she mutters. With a deep breath she pulls the lever.

\--

The day passes fixing the damages and wondering about bunkers and the desperation to survive a hopeless situation. Wells hides the gun. No one asks him about it or tells him what to do with it once everyone's gotten to see it. He feels it scares him more than anyone else.

“Look! A shooting star!”

Truly, a bright spot moves across the sky with fire tailing behind it.

“That's no shooting star”, Clarke says. “It's a ship!”

There's gasps and excited chatter. Wells has a bad feeling.

“We should go find it.”

“It's dark. It's not safe.” Clarke frowns at him. “Why do you look like that?”

“Bellamy's not here.”

Clarke looks around frantically. “That son of a --”

“Yeah, yeah. We need to find out if he knows about the ship.”

Clarke points to Octavia, who's standing next to Miller, still gazing at the stars. They march over to her.

“Where's your brother?” Clarke demands.

Wells shuts her up with a look after Octavia pretends to zip up her lips. “Hey, O. Did Bellamy tell you where he went?”

The girl nods proudly. Miller’s eyeing them oddly, but he ignores him.

“It's not the bunker, is it?”

After a moment Octavia shakes her head. Clarke hisses, and immediately she looks worried.

“It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong.”

Octavia nods. She steps back to Miller and loops her arm through his, leaning into him.

“Let's go.”

They grab one of the flashlights and head to the woods. It's gotten easier to navigate their way around, paths having been formed in the nearby areas and marks left in trees during further trips. Still, they'll never quite forget the first night.

“He's up to something. I just know it. This whole time I've felt like he's on a mission to ruin everything. Well, now we'll have proof.” Clarke's muttering to herself to keep a hold of her nerves.

They walk for at least a half an hour without any sign of the ship. The smell of smoke comes first. They follow it and finally reach the landing site. The parachute is ripped, but it seems the trees slowed the landing. The ship, or more like a pod, is mostly in one piece.

“This still makes no sense”, Clarke chatters as they approach the pod carefully. “Why would they send supplies but not contact us first. Or maybe they sent someone down with a message. But that would be too dangerous.”

“Clarke. Please shut up.”

“Sorry. I just don't like this.”

The door of the pod is slightly ajar. Clarke squeezes in and gasps loudly. Wells works the door open properly.

“Shit.”

There's a person on the seat, unmoving, a stain of blood on the inside of their helmet. _Not again._

“Open the other side. We need to see if they're still alive.” Clarke's medical training kicks in.

Together they drag the pilot out of the pod and lay them down on the ground. Clarke removes the helmet slowly.

It's been a long time since Wells last saw Raven Reyes, but this isn't how he imagined their reunion to be like. They were good friends years and years ago until life took them different ways. Raven went to work full time and Wells kept studying.

“She's breathing. She's alive.”

“Raven. Raven, wake up. Please, wake up.”

She does, painfully. Her forehead’s no longer bleeding, but it still clearly hurts. Raven blinks up at them.

“Hi.”

Clarke's eyes are teary. “Hi.”

Raven’s eyes focus on Wells. “You're here.”

“ _You're_ here.”

She pushes herself up. “Ouch.”

“Be careful. You hit your head”, Clarke says.

“I made it.”

“You're on the ground.”

Raven breaks into a grin. “I can't believe it. I have to tell Sinclair.”

“You have a way?”

“Yeah, in the pod. I --” She groans after a failed attempt to stand up. Clarke goes to get it for her. “I can't believe it.”

“There's no radio”, Clarke calls from the pod.

“What? Yes, there is. I attached it there before the launch. I checked. Twice.”

Clarke hops back out. “I'm sorry. It's gone.”

“Gone?”

“It's been ripped out.”

“Bellamy.” Wells sighs, rubbing his eyes.

“You think he took it?”

“It's the last way for us to contact The Ark. He wanted them to take off the wristbands. Now he's snatched the only working radio they sent down for us. He doesn't want them to think we're alive.”

“But why?”

“I don't know.”

“They didn't send me down.”

They both turn to Raven. “Huh?”

“They didn't send me. I came on my own.”

Wells buries his face in his hands.

“But... why haven't they contacted us?” Clarke sounds as defeated as he feels. “The radio works, right?”

“I don't know after the storm but... before it did.”

“It doesn't make any sense.”

“They sent us down here to die, Clarke. Don't you get it?” Wells snaps.

“No. No, they didn't. Bellamy did this. He's done something. We need to find him.” Clarke jumps up and starts walking back towards the camp.

“You haven't told her her mom did all this”, Raven says quietly.

Wells shakes his head. “I didn't know how. I was hoping it was all a misunderstanding.”

“Even though her mom is evil, it doesn't mean she has to be.”

“I don't know if she knows that.”

He helps Raven up. They shut the pod doors to wait for later inspection. They don't talk as they follow Clarke. Raven touches the barks of trees as they walk. So much has happened in the short time they've been on the ground that Wells has trouble remembering that first feeling of wonder.

It's not quiet for long. Clarke's caught up with Bellamy in the woods and her yelling reaches them first.

“I don't know what you're up to, but it ends now! You've done the last fucking thing to ruin this for all of us! Tell me where the radio is. Now!”

Bellamy turns to look at them as they come into view. “Can you tell her to stop screaming at me?”

“You deserve it this time”, Wells states.

“I didn't do anything.”

“You stole my radio.”

Bellamy raises a brow. “And you are?”

“I'm here to save your asses.”

Bellamy steps closer to Raven, clearly getting angry. “You didn't need to come down here. We were just fine.”

Raven scoffs, eyeing him from head to toe. Instead of backing down, she gets in Bellamy's face. “Well, I'm not here for you. Blake.”

“You know him?”

“Shut up”, Bellamy says before she can answer.

“Where's the radio?” Clarke shoves him, her patience gone. “What did you do with the radio?”

“They left us for dead. Why do you care?”

“We've been over this. I'm not a selfish prick like you.”

“Where's the dropship?” Raven asks. “Is it far?”

“No. But we need to find the radio.”

Wells sighs. “This equality you've been preaching”, he points at Bellamy with his chin, “we're going to keep practicing it. We go tell the others about the pod and Raven.”

“Sure. They should have a say in what happens to him, too.”

“We're not _doing_ anything to him, Clarke.”

She doesn't say anything, pushing at Bellamy to get him walking. Raven and Wells follow them.

“Wells. I need to tell you something.”

“Can it wait until we've sorted this out?”

“Yeah, sure. It's important, though.”

“I'll remember”, Wells promises.

They get to the camp. People run to greet Raven excitedly. She's known by many and her presence is like a message of hope. Only one welcomer comes as a surprise.

Octavia skips across the yard and lands in Raven’s arms. “Hey, little girl.” She pets her hair. “They got you too, huh?”

“What's going on?” Bellamy glares at Raven. “How the hell do you know my sister?”

“I helped her get home once. She ran into me in the hall, all shaken up. She didn't know where she lived, but she remembered numbers. They were the number of your place, just backwards. Like you saw them from the inside. I got her back there, never saw her again. Only realized who she was when they got your mom.”

Bellamy stares at her with his mouth stuck open, the anger dissipating from his eyes. He shakes his head and presses his lips together tightly. “O. Come on.” He holds out his hand, and Octavia takes it. They disappear in the dropship.

“Is everyone here?” Raven rises on her toes to see over the crowd.

Wells looks around as well. “Some might still be in the woods. Who are you looking for?”

“My brother.”

“Your brother?”

“Obviously not literally. Finn. He's like my brother. Finn Collins.”

Wells’ stomach turns. Raven doesn't notice, still looking around with a small smile on her face. He didn't know. He never made the connection.

“Raven.”

She turns to him, her brows raised. He can tell that when she looks at his face she realizes what he's about to say. Raven shakes her head sharply.

“No. Wells, no. No.”

“I'm so sorry.”

\--

There's no sign at the head of the grave. No mark of who lies there. Small wisps of grass grow from the turned earth. Someone's laid tiny yellow flowers at the end.

Raven sits on the ground. Her fingers are buried in the same dirt that the person she most loves rests in. She's recited every prayer, every speech she can remember until there's just her.

“The ground is beautiful, Finn. You would've loved it. I remember when you wanted to learn every bird there was. I can hear them singing, Finn.” She wipes her eyes. “It's all for you.”

Wells finds her in the dropship later on. She has her necklace in her hands in the light of a flashlight.

Wells calls her name. He crouches down in front of her. “I'm sorry about your brother.”

She doesn't look up.

“I-I buried him. On the day of the landing. I -- I didn't know how but...”

“No. It's good. Quickly is good.”

“They've all prayed for him. I asked Monroe if there was anything specific... They promised to take care of it.”

Raven nods. “Monroe knew him.”

“I'm really sorry, Raven.”

“I wanted to find out what happened to you. They don't know on The Ark. They don't know about you. Sinclair and I wanted to make sure they found out. But I had to come find you. I had to find out what happened to him.” She squeezes the pendant in her palm. “I owe him my life. I would've gladly died coming down here, for him. He wasn't supposed to die for me.”

“It's not your fault.”

“It is.” She sighs, letting the necklace fall back under her shirt. “And I have to live with it.” Raven looks up at Wells. “Wells... What I needed to tell you. It's about your dad.”

“What is it?” He frowns.

“He was shot. He was alive when I last heard of him. I don't know how bad it is but... Wells. Bellamy shot your dad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have chapter three already written and four over halfway done. i'll see when i can get to posting
> 
> if you'd like, you can support this by reblogging [this post on tumblr](http://alecilghtwood.tumblr.com/post/155541840042/) and/or telling your friends. also yes, there'll be clexa in season two.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings remain the same but in this chapter there's an ounce of homophobic/transphobic attitude from a drunken person for specifics check the end notes
> 
> i'm finished with chapter four but i think i'll post 4&5 together so i'll get to that asap
> 
> i can't seem to focus enough to proofread through any of this so i'm hoping there's no glaring errors i've forgotten to fix i stg every time i write sth with a strictly planned plot i'm like 60000x more stressed

“Wells. Wells!” 

He doesn't listen. He's barely in control of his body as he marches out of the dropship. An anger’s taken charge, one that he's never quite felt before. It's the burn of betrayal and exhaustion that sizzles through his system and leaves all sensibility behind. 

“You tried to kill my dad?” 

He's yelling. He rarely yells, but he's not really Wells right now. He's Disappointment, he's Grief, he's years and years of being good and quiet and obedient. 

Bellamy’s caught off guard and still his first instinct is to check Octavia's not near. 

“I've tried to be understanding with you. I've defended you and been kind to you. And I have to hear from someone else that you _shot my dad_?” 

There's voices, almost amused, but they're silenced by his glare. 

Bellamy almost looks small for a moment. “Wells, I --” 

“No. Screw you, Bellamy. You're not even sorry.” 

The quiet that follows is deafening. It's like no one's breathing, like even the wind’s stilled to listen. 

“I'm not”, Bellamy says finally. 

Wells shakes his head. He walks back into the dropship. 

\-- 

They return to the pod as soon as the sun comes up. The plan is to take it apart and reuse everything they can. 

Raven now knows everything that's happened. The landing, Jasper, the bunker, all of it. She tried to talk to Monty before they left. He seemed happy to see her, but as soon as she brought up Jasper he made an excuse to leave. 

Wells wasn't really talking to anyone all morning. Raven doesn't regret telling him the truth but she wishes she didn't have to. She's only landed him in the same situation as she was in just a day before; unsure of whether his only family is alive or not. 

“Try to get that clean off, okay? Be careful, everyone. This pod took a good hit yesterday. I don't know how stable it is.” 

Raven advises the others the best she can. The pods they repurposed on The Ark were never in use. 

There's a line of people carrying the things Sinclair packed in for her back to camp. She can't imagine how many favors he'd had to pull to get all of it. There's piles of fabric, most of it tarp. There's flashlights and random tools that get an excited reaction out of Jones and everyone he shows them to. 

Bellamy brings back the radio he discarded. Raven doesn't know whether he got sick of Clarke bothering him or felt guilty over what he'd done. She checks the device immediately, but all the frequencies are dead. 

It's not Bellamy's fault this time. She realizes they'd been too hopeful. There's no satellite to distribute their message. She makes a mental note to find the hidden communications system in the dropship once they're done with the pod. The ship was a part of The Ark. There must be an already established connection between the two. 

“I'm still worried about the rations. Because we never got to Mount Weather, we might run out of food any day now.” 

Clarke's a chatter, she's learned. She's so tightly wound, it seems the only way to release some of that nervous energy is talking. 

“So what are you thinking?” 

“We have to consider hunting. Even if we are able to plant something in the ground _and_ actually grow something out of it _and_ cook it, it won't be enough for all of us. The nuts and berries we've found are something. But the end result is always that it just won't be enough.” 

Raven sets down her screwdriver and turns to look at her. “Hunting.” 

“It's what people used to survive on. Meat is a source of protein and --” 

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Raven waves her off. “But we don't know how to hunt. We've been living off of scientifically perfected energy bars and space veggies for a century. Not to mention that you haven't even seen a single animal while you've been down here.” 

Clarke sits on a rock and drags her hands over her face. “I know. I have no idea what to do.” 

“So going to the mountain is a no?” 

“No one's exactly volunteering. We don't know what's out there.” 

“Alright. So we do what we can.” Raven cups her face between her hands. “Keep it together. Keep thinking.” 

Clarke just stares at her. Raven lets go and goes back to work. 

“Fish.” Clarke jumps up after a few minutes and starts pacing. “We've seen fish. And fishing isn't necessarily active.” She stops. “We need to make a net or something.” 

Raven grins. “There you go.” 

To her surprise Clarke hugs her tightly. “Thank you.” 

“You're welcome”, she manages, slightly choked up. 

Clarke rushes excitedly back to camp. Raven makes another mental note to hug people more. 

\-- 

The camp is surprisingly empty. Wells sits by the water barrel, looking around. Everyone's either in the woods or asleep inside or by the lake. 

He's quite impressed with how well they've worked together. Being in the Box really united them. Wells still doesn't feel like one of them. 

“Why are you sad?” 

Octavia watches him curiously, her head tilted to the side. 

“I'm not sad.” 

“You look sad.” 

Wells sighs and pats the seat next to him. Octavia sits down, still looking at him expectantly. 

He's not about to use a child as his therapist. 

“I'm fine. I promise.” 

“Are you mad at Bell?” 

“Why do you think so?” 

“You don't talk to him. And he doesn't talk to you.” 

He should learn not to question child logic. “I'm a little mad at him.” 

“It's okay. Mommy always said it doesn't matter as long as you have family. I'm not mad at him.” 

Wells frowns. “You... know what he did?” 

Octavia shakes her head. “But he's here. He wasn't there in the Box. You do a bad thing to go in the Box.” 

“What did you do?” 

She twists her fingers together. “I was a little baby.” 

Wells places a hand over hers. “You didn't do anything wrong.” 

“Bell says that.”

“Do you believe him?”

Octavia nods. Wells clears his throat to get through the tightness of it, giving her a smile. 

“Do you wanna help me make more flower things?” 

“Sure.” 

Octavia jumps up. “I promised to make one for Roma and then Monroe said they want one. And Miller said he wants a pink one but I said there's no pink ones but he said it's okay...”

\-- 

“It's ready!” 

The yell echoes through the camp and has people swarming around the tent Monty's been in for the past few hours. When he finally carries out the barrel, he's met with cheers. 

Monty faced his sentence in the Box for making hooch for him and his friends. They'd gathered their rations for weeks to make it possible. With half a dozen kids throwing up around the place, Monty took the fall for the whole thing. 

On the ground the process is much easier. For their fourteenth day on the ground, Monty's cooked up the biggest batch he possibly could from the selection of fruits and berries they'd discovered from the woods. 

It also happens to be Mbege’s birthday so he gets the first cup. He raises it in salute and says: “To not dying.” He cringes at the first taste. “Disgusting.” 

They all cheer, pushing him out of the way to get their shares. 

The Ark allowed parties on some special occasions. They were all supervised and as contained as possible. The 100’s two weeks on the ground celebration is nothing like it. 

With no music there's constant drunken singing and laughter filling the air. They sit around the fires that are still on from when they cooked dinner. Their fishing skills have slowly been getting better. By trial and error they'd created nets and put them to use. The face Harper made after touching a fish for the first time was a joke in the camp for days. 

Clothes sway in the wind on the clothesline they created from seatbelts. The weather’s been turning warmer so washing up’s become much easier. Monty looks around the village of tents and people wandering about. Just the day before he found himself calling it home. 

He's been helping Raven go through the dropship. They mark areas where you can remove materials for repurposing in search of the communications system. The fence has grown more sturdy with the new reinforcements. They even have a gate now. 

He likes working with Raven. She never talks when she concentrates. Everyone else keeps trying to make him talk. He has to keep making sure he's not left alone with Roma or she'll try to get a conversation out of him. 

They went back to the place days ago. Again he was told not to go too close. This time he listened. 

They got his body out of the trap. It took a long time but they succeeded eventually. Wrapped in a sheet, he was carried back to camp. Now two graves lie behind the dropship where summer flowers are starting to grow. 

It did make him feel a little better. But not enough. 

“Oh sorry”, Jones says when he accidentally hits him with his knee as he's taking a seat next to him. His hand is still in Mbege's as they just returned from the woods. 

“Romes, I thought you were doing Mbege.”

Mbege sticks his tongue out at Monroe, who in return throws a pine cone at him. 

“We're old news”, Roma chuckles. “And we were never doing each other unlike these two. You can quote me on that.” 

Now it's Mbege's turn to throw the pine cone at Roma. 

“Better to get the gay out of the way now.” Monty doesn't remember the name of the boy who speaks up. “When The Ark drops down you know they're just gonna want breeders.” 

Monty feels sick. He sets down his cup.

“Shut the fuck up. You're disgusting”, Roma snaps at the boy. “And wrong on so many levels.”

“Just saying it as it is.” 

Monroe grabs Roma's arm before she jumps the guy. 

They've been getting along surprisingly well. There used to be more fights in the Box, but the added space has helped. Some of them just don't get along and aren't afraid to show it, but they've managed to keep it civil. 

“Fuck off.” 

The boy does move. Once he's gone Monty gets up. Roma immediately looks worried. 

“Hey, Mon, you okay?” 

“Yeah, just going to bed.” 

He wishes them good night and heads for the dropship. Wells passes him on his way, looking for Clarke. Monty points him towards the tent he last saw her at. 

\-- 

“Clarke?” Wells peeks into the tent where Monty directed him to. He almost runs into Raven, who’s coming out, tying up her hair.

“Hi, Wells.”

“Uh. Hi.” 

Raven flashes him a smile before walking away. Wells steps inside the tent. 

“Oh, hi. What’s up?” Clarke pulls her shirt on over her head. 

“I’m gonna ignore what just happened for now. Wanna come for a walk with me?”

“I was gonna grab a drink. Are you not drinking?” 

“No. But it’s okay. Go on. You’ve had a... busy night.”

Clarke grimaces. “Are you gonna give me a speech?”

“It can wait.” 

“Love you.” Clarke kisses his cheek and heads out. 

Wells stands in the tent for a moment. He’s not in the mood to spend time with the others despite it having become easier lately. So he heads for the woods with a flashlight in hand. 

He walks until the sounds of the camp are barely audible. It’s calm and quiet among the trees. It’s one of his favorite things about the ground, still. 

The sound is faint at first, but he follows it. Despite having turned off the flashlight, he can see a small owl sitting on a tree branch. Wells stares at it, eyes wide. It’s the first animal he’s seen besides the fish. He stays still. The bird seems to notice him, but it doesn’t fly away. Wells moves closer. The owl is still uninterested. He can feel his heart beating in his ears.

He tries to go as close as he can, but a sudden low noise has the creature leaving the branch in alarm. Wells freezes, fearing he’s about to meet something much bigger than just a bird. Nothing appears from the shadows and he breathes again. 

When he hears the sound again, he walks around the tree, curiosity taking over caution as he turns the flashlight back on. Someone’s lying on the ground by the roots peeking from the soil. Panic flares through him as he tries to recognize the clothes, an injury, a face. 

It’s not one of them. 

Suddenly two brown eyes are staring at him, wide and distraught. Wells stares back with his mouth hanging open. It takes a while before he manages to talk. 

“Are you okay?” 

There’s no answer. It doesn’t seem like the words register. Wells racks his brain for a different language. On The Ark the children are immersed in every language still spoken in order to preserve them. They learn an uncontrollable mix of ways to communicate that no one tries to limit anymore. 

He repeats the question in English. 

“No”, he gets in reply. 

“Who are you?” 

“Lincoln.” He tries to push himself up, but slumps back with a groan. 

“Sorry. Are you hurt? Can I help?” Wells kneels next to him and sets down the flashlight. He reaches for the man’s leg, but his hand is caught by another. “Sorry”, he says again. 

Lincoln lets go of him. “I twisted my ankle. I hit my head when I fell.” 

“You can't walk?” 

Lincoln shakes his head. 

“Shit.” Wells wipes his brow and a streak of moisture transfers to his skin. Closer to the light he can see it's red. “You're bleeding?” 

“Oh, yeah. That too.” Lincoln touches his arm. “It's not that bad.” 

Wells lets out a long breath. “This planet is something else.” 

\-- 

They get through the camp unnoticed. Lincoln keeps his head down, and Wells holding him up looks like any other drunken pair helping one another to bed. 

No one sleeps on the lowest floor of the dropship anymore. Wells gets Lincoln to sit down where you can't spot him by the ladder before going after Clarke again. He drags her away from a drinking game without an explanation. Her complaints fall silent the second she sees Lincoln. 

“Holy shit.” 

“In English, please.”

She switches to English. “Shit.”

“Yeah, Clarke. I know.” 

“What's happening right now?” Clarke crosses her arms. “That's a... person.” 

Lincoln glances at Wells as if to ask if he's serious. 

“He's injured, Clarke. Can you handle this or do I get someone else?” 

Clarke shakes her head sharply. “Give me two minutes.” She ducks out of the ship without waiting for an answer. 

“She's your healer?” 

Wells sits down next to Lincoln. “The best we've got. She's just been... celebrating a little.” 

“Right”, Lincoln huffs, scratching at his beard. “I feel real secure.” 

“I trust her.” 

Lincoln stays quiet. 

Clarke comes rushing in with the scarce first aid kit The Ark had provided for them. The loose strands around her face are still wet from her clearing her head. “Okay. What's the deal?” 

She inspects Lincoln’s ankle and checks his pupils. After receiving a look from the man, Clarke hands the bandaging supplies to Wells. She goes to tie his ankle instead.

“It's an inversion sprain. We obviously don't have ice but keeping it compressed and elevated will get us somewhere.” 

Wells helps Lincoln get his arm out of the sleeve of his jacket before cleaning the wound on his arm. “How did you get this?” 

“I don't know. Something hit me; I felt the sting. It made me trip and I passed out.” 

“Why were you outside our camp?” Clarke asks. 

“I wasn't outside _your camp_. I was outside. In the woods.” 

Clarke sighs. “Right. Sorry. I'm just -- What the hell are we gonna tell everyone? We just found a _person_ from the woods and brought him in?” 

“Yes. Because he's a person. Who needed help.” 

“He's one of _them_ , Wells.” 

Lincoln snorts. Clarke ignores him. 

“I'm getting Raven and Bellamy.” 

“Go ahead. I'll deal with them.” 

Clarke leaves the ship. Wells runs his hands over his face. 

“You're about to be in some trouble”, Lincoln says, sounding amused. 

“You owe me.” 

“What are they going to think of me?” 

“I'm not sure”, Wells admits. “You're the first groundsperson we've met.” 

“You're the first space person I've met.”

“I figured you knew where we came from.” 

“You didn't come down quietly.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Wells?” Raven’s eyes are wide when she spots them. “Ay.” 

Bellamy's right behind her. “What's going on?” 

“This is Lincoln. I found him in the woods.” Wells stands up. He wants to think Bellamy still feels guilty enough to let this slide. They've barely talked since he found out about his dad. “He just needed help. He's injured.” 

“They killed one of us, Wells”, Bellamy says slowly. 

“I haven't killed anyone.” They turn to look at Lincoln, who shrugs. “I understand Spanish.” 

“Where are your people? Where are you from?” Bellamy demands. 

“Little closer than where you are from, space boy. They warned me about coming here. Clearly I should've listened.”

“You've been watching us.” 

“I was curious. Can you blame me?” 

“How do you know so much about us?” Raven asks. 

“I've seen the records of the old space stations. I connected the dots. More commonly, though, you're part of a myth.” 

“A myth?” 

Lincoln huffs out a laugh and cites: “Among the fire that rains from the sky are the bringers of death.” 

They're stuck in silence for a few seconds. Bellamy drags a hand over his face. 

“Sounds about right.”

\-- 

It starts by the river. The words spoken are hard and unwavering. The people who don't agree simply ignore them and do their work. The ones who do join in. 

Monty's untangling a net and listening quietly. When the news of Lincoln spread, they were once again reminded of the fear they lived with. These people on the ground had survived a nuclear war. They were something to fear. 

“What do you think Blake will do about the grounder?”

“Screw Blake. He's clearly losing it. I doubt he'll make any decision about it.” 

His name is Atom. He's also over the age limit of the Box because his trial got postponed. It seems he's earned himself some listeners. Monty doesn't really know him; he steered away from him in the Box. He never liked people who were loud just for the sake of being loud. 

They're not happy about Lincoln being in the camp. He's not one of them, he doesn't belong there. They don't trust him. 

Monty doesn't know what he thinks. But their anger calms him. He's not the only one who's mad. He's not the only one whose skin crawls with the need to just hit something. 

“Monty!” Jones’ calling his name behind him. “Raven’s asking for you.” 

He hands the net over to Nel, who sits closest to him, and rushes to follow Jones back to camp. He'd been going through the dropship with Raven before, but once most of it was done and hands were needed elsewhere, he'd left Raven to it. It must mean she's got something new now. 

“Mon, check this out.” She's standing by a pile of junk, looking pleased with herself. “I took apart the system. It was a fucking mess of old wiring, but it's all here. You up for some rebuilding?” 

“What are you thinking?” 

“We build in the radio Sinclair gave me. Make it a two-way line.” 

The system built into the ship was old and they doubted it had actually been tested before the launch. The only point of it seemed to be to transmit whatever The Ark wanted them to hear, while any possibility to respond had been stripped by them or the storm. 

Lincoln’s still on the first floor of the ship. He sits quietly against the wall, simply watching everything that's happening around him. Monty forgets he's even there until Wells walks in to talk to him. 

His ankle is still sore and if there was a concussion, it's very minor. Clarke feared an infection in the cut on his arm, but it's getting better. 

Wells brings him water and they chat quietly for a while. Raven stops him as he's leaving. 

“How is he?” 

“Better. Really wants to walk already.”

“Do you think it's safe? They don't trust him.” 

“I'll deal with them. The sooner he walks again, the quicker we can resolve this _thing_ ”, Wells sighs. “Is the first aid kit still in your tent?” 

“Yeah, you can just go and get it.”

“Sure I won't find my best friend there?” 

Raven rolls her eyes. “I think you're safe.” 

Wells pats Monty on the shoulder on his way out. A hint of a smile is still playing on Raven’s lips as she goes back to work. 

“What's that all about?” Monty asks. 

“I kind of slept with Clarke.” 

“Oh.” Monty's eyes widen. “ _Oh_.”

“That”, Raven tilts her head to the side with a grin, “is what she said.” 

Monty actually removes his shoe to throw it at her.

\--

The tension only rises when Lincoln starts to walk carefully. It's bringing up questions on where he lives and where he'll go. While Lincoln doesn't reveal that particular information, he doesn't ignore most of their other questions. 

“The war wasn't unknown to anyone. The ships you were brought up on were sent off well before, when the rich were still laughing at the thought of mass destruction.” 

“How could you possibly survive nuclear bombs?” Mbege crosses his arms over his chest. 

“ _I_ didn't. People went underground. Anyone who stayed above didn't survive. A lot of people trusted different types of security systems that were sold to them at high prices. Obviously they did not work.”

“So the rich burned?” he huffs.

“The ones who were too trusting. You could argue the wealthiest did make it, possibly even comfortably.” Lincoln stretches out his legs to get more comfortable in his seat. He's surrounded by a group of people brave enough to actually talk to him. 

Wells watches him from the corner of his eye every few minutes. Lincoln’s been out a few times without trouble already, but it makes him feel uneasy. A dozen of people chatting with him is nothing compared to the almost hundred glaring at him. 

He feels responsible for Lincoln. He found him and it was his decision to bring him in. It's on him to get him safely out as well. 

“How did you know when to come back out?” Roma asks. 

“Trial and error, I'd imagine. If you went out and didn't burn alive, it was fine.” 

They chuckle, and Lincoln catches Wells’ eye. He shakes his head in amusement. Wells smiles encouragingly. 

He's not sure if Lincoln really doesn't know or if he's simply saving them from a less appealing image. Lincoln’s told him some things about his people. They've discussed the environment together and how they prepare for the seasons changing. He's mentioned Indra, who Wells assumes is a respected figure of some sort within them by the way Lincoln speaks of her. Some sort of hierarchy still exists.

The groundspeople have been above ground for way over fifty years. According to Lincoln, everything was green when they came out. The stories of the rising are still passed on frequently. Wells still wants to discuss everything about climate change and its effects on the ground, but he doesn't want to be too much of a bother. 

“What did you eat then?” Diggs asks, and Lincoln starts explaining the new rise of agriculture. 

“Wells?”

He ignores Bellamy calling for him. They still haven't really spoken since he confessed. Wells hasn't stopped thinking about it, about his dad and how he's doing, if he's even alive anymore. When it comes to Bellamy, he's still not sure. It's been easier to just ignore him. He admitted he didn't regret what he did. Wells thinks he's earned the right to keep ignoring him. 

“Wells.”

Bellamy tries once more, his voice growing impatient. Wells keeps staring at the ground. Fingers wrap around his arm and he's being pulled towards the trees. 

“Hey! Bellamy, stop!” 

They're deep in the woods enough to be out of range from the camp. Bellamy lets him go, standing between him and the way back. 

“You can be mad at me, but you can't keep ignoring me.”

“I think I have every damn right to ignore you as much as I want.” 

Bellamy glares at him. He's clearly hit a nerve and he doesn't care. 

“What I did was nothing personal, Wells. It's not like I did it to hurt you.”

“Well it hurt me anyway!” Wells snaps. “You hurt my family.” 

“Guys?” Raven’s come after them, looking worried. “What’s with the yelling? Please don’t tell me you’re gonna fight it out.”

They both ignore her. 

“If I didn’t do it, someone else would’ve”, Bellamy grits out.

“So I should be happy it was you who shot my dad?”

Raven covers her face with her hands. 

“You’re acting like I had a choice!”

“You haven’t given me a reason not to!”

“Fine.”

Wells stops abruptly. “Fine?” 

“You think I’m a murderer. I’ll tell you.” Bellamy glances at Raven. “Both of you.”

“Are you snapping, Blake?” Raven raises a brow at him. 

Bellamy ignores her. “There’s going to be an uprising on The Ark. It’s been in the works for a while. Killing Jaha was only the beginning.”

“You were a part of it? Why?”

“I wasn’t. I don’t know what they want. I did what I had to do.”

“None of this matters to me”, Wells says sternly. 

“I did it for Octavia. I couldn't let her go alone.” 

Raven crosses her arms. “You got on the dropship voluntarily?” 

Bellamy nods. “If she died, I would've died too.” 

Raven’s face falls and whatever she thought of saying dies on her lips. She turns around and walks off without another word. Wells doesn't say anything to stop her. Frankly, he's out of words himself. 

Bellamy sighs and unceremoniously sits down on the ground. He looks tired and defeated, the furthest thing from the powerful man who took charge on the very first day. 

“You weren't in the Box, right? Octavia said so.”

Bellamy shakes his head. “I walked straight into the ship after... you know.” 

“They promised to get you in in exchange for killing my dad?” 

“Yeah. They told me about Octavia being sent down and how there was nothing I could do. I couldn't let her go alone. She's my sister. My responsibility.”

Wells sits down next to him, hugging his knees to his chest. Bellamy glances at him. Their eyes meet before he looks away again. 

“When Octavia was born, I knew she was special. We had to keep her hidden so they wouldn't take her away from us. As you know, we didn't succeed. After our mom died, I'm all she has left. I couldn't -- I had to make it right.” 

“Did you have a seat on the ship?” 

Bellamy looks confused. “No. I figured it didn't come with the service. I strapped myself to the ladder.” 

“You were the 100th.” 

The realization is an ugly feeling rising from his chest. 

Bellamy frowns. “What?” 

“When they took me into the ship, everyone else was already in. Even Clarke, who was also in isolation. They'd knocked her out and strapped her in. I was last. They must've come looking for the last prisoner. It must've been your seat.” 

“My seat?”

“I don't think I was supposed to be sent down here.”

Bellamy stares at him, looking even more helpless than before. “You're down here because of me.” 

Wells grimaces. “No! I mean technically. But Bellamy, I don't blame you for that. I'm sorry.”

“You're sorry? I shot your dad. I'm the reason you're stuck here.” Bellamy runs a hand through his hair, his breathing picking up.

Wells takes his hand, trying to distract him from the panic. “I'm sorry. Because you've lived in fear your entire life. You didn't have a choice. I don't blame you.” 

“You should”, Bellamy breathes out. He sniffles and clears his throat.

Wells feels like he's seeing him for the first time as he tries to blink back tears. 

“Bellamy. I promise you. I understand now.”

Bellamy shakes his head. He squeezes Wells’ hand in his and takes a shaky breath. “I'm sorry.”

“The Ark, the law, my dad and the council - no one was ever on your side. But now I am, okay? I'm on your side. Even when The Ark comes down.” 

He gets no answer, but Bellamy rests his head on his shoulder. They sit in silence for a moment. Wells watches the rays of light peeking through green leaves as they sway in the wind. The ground really isn't that bad. 

“What made you change your mind and tell me all this?” 

“I talked to O earlier. I didn't exactly promise to confess everything, but I was told to ‘stop making Wells sad’.” 

“Getting mad at me seemed to do the trick.”

Bellamy pushes at his shoulder and scoots away from retaliation. Wells tries to stare him down, but Bellamy just meets his gaze. Bellamy's eyes fall, and before Wells can suggest they go back to camp, he's leaning forward and pressing his lips on Wells’. 

It's soft and dry. Bellamy pulls back at the surprised noise he makes. Wells blinks at him.

“You kissed me.”

“You kissed me back.” 

“Even if I didn't see it coming, it's not like you stopped being irritatingly cute.” 

“Right”, Bellamy smirks. He gets up and holds out a hand for him. Wells lets himself be helped up. “We should go see if your friend is still alive.” 

Wells rolls his eyes. 

“Are you gonna tell me to go talk to Raven?”

“I think she deserves to know you're not a total dick.”

“She's not my biggest fan.” 

“For a good reason.”

Bellamy sighs. “That should be fun.”

\--

He doesn't know if Bellamy’s talked to Raven, but things seem calmer after he spoke with the man. Summer on the ground is beautiful. The air is warmer than ever before and it's lulled the camp into a state of serenity. 

“Hey, Wells, you wanna come swim with us?” Clarke asks him.

He can't help being proud of her relaxing and having fun. Surprisingly enough it's part Raven’s doing. Had he known the result, he would've actually agreed to be her wingman back on The Ark. 

“I'm good.”

“Suit yourself.” Clarke drops a kiss on the top of his head and runs after Fox and Monroe. 

Lincoln sits next to him with a sigh. He tries moving his ankle around a bit and grimaces. 

“Just give it time.” 

Lincoln just gives him an unimpressed look. Octavia skips over and plops down on the ground in front of them. She smiles at Wells, and he returns the smile. 

“I want to catch a butterfly”, she says. 

Lincoln snorts and Octavia's attention turns to him. 

“Do you know how?”

“They're not really supposed to be caught.”

“But I will.” 

Wells steps in to help. “Why do you want to catch one, O?”

“So I can look at it. They always fly away when I go close.” Octavia turns to Lincoln expectantly. 

Wells gives him an encouraging smile. Lincoln shakes his head. 

“No. Come on.”

“Please!” Octavia sticks out her lower lip.

“Yeah, Lincoln.” Wells grins. “ _Please._ ”

He gets up and nods towards the woods. “Come on then, little girl.” 

Octavia's smile is blinding as she rushes to follow. Wells can't help laughing when Octavia grabs Lincoln’s hand and he can _see_ him sigh. 

Wells ends up lying in the sun with Harper and Jones. Their comfortable chatter and the warmth on his skin have his eyes falling shut. They're talking about the bunker. He didn't know people were still going there. 

“Me and John were there the other night. It's not much more comfortable than anywhere else but, I mean, the privacy is priceless.” 

“You and _John_ , huh?” Harper cackles. 

“Ha-ha, hilarious.” Jones’ foot scuffs against the ground when it lands back from the kick he directed at her ankle. “And plenty coming from someone whose only company is their right hand.” 

“I'm left-handed, jackass.” 

Jones bursts into laughter. Wells snorts, his eyes still shut, earning him a jab of Harper’s elbow in his side. 

“I hate both of you.” 

“Guys!” Bellamy’s calling for them from the treeline. “Come here.”

They go over to him, Harper and Jones still shoving at each other. Bellamy’s serious look has them straightening out. 

“What's up?”

“We've been taking count. Four are unaccounted for as of last night. We're going searching for them.”

“What do you mean exactly? They're missing?”

Bellamy’s mouth is a tight line. “Miller said they probably left with the latest group heading out. Hopefully they just got lost.”

Jones and Harper nod, jogging off without another word. Wells follows Bellamy. 

“You think they're really lost?”

“I'm counting on it.”

Raven comes with them. She seems much more relaxed than Bellamy, smiling at Wells as she settles into step with them. 

Bellamy keeps talking in a way that almost reminds him of Clarke. His pace is fast, and Wells has to ask if he has a plan for the search.

“We're tracing the river; it seems like the place to go. At least for a better chance to be found. If you got lost, I mean.” 

“Hey! Wait up!” Raven yells after them. She picks up a bright orange flower and rushes to catch up with them. “This is a search party of three.” 

“I'm glad you're having fun”, Bellamy says dryly. 

Raven sticks the flower in his hair. “There are still some wonders you shouldn't overlook, Blake.”

Instead of shaking it off, he hands it carefully back to her.

They reach the riverbed where the water’s shallow. The cheerful sounds of the others are just audible from their closest beach. Jones is walking by the water on the other side. Harper's just visible in the woods with Mbege not far behind. 

“Where should we --”

Wells can't finish the question when Jones yells out suddenly. He's cursing loudly, making Harper and Mbege run over, alarmed. 

Bellamy steps into the water and makes his way to the other side. They follow, across the knee-deep shallows. The flower falls into the water and drifts away as they stand frozen around what Jones found. 

“Please tell me that's not --” Raven shakes her head, a hand over her mouth. 

“This is getting all sick and twisted. A finger?” Mbege does the sign of the cross. 

“Fuck”, Bellamy sighs. He turns to Raven and Wells, his eyes tired. “So what now? What are we gonna do?”

“We go look for them”, Raven says immediately. “They could still be alive. This could be an accident.”

Wells nods shakily. “I can ask Lincoln for help. He knows the grounds. We'll find them.”

Bellamy rubs the bridge of his nose. “Go back and talk to him. We'll move slower, scouring the woods. They're somewhere out here.”

Wells leaves right away, taking the straightest route back to camp. He focuses on his feet moving and not the fear tingling at the base of his spine.

A scream cuts through the summer air, making his blood turn cold. His limbs suddenly weigh tons, paralyzing dread taking over instead of a rushed worry. 

He manages to keep moving with his every instinct telling him to go the other way. He's seen enough, there's been enough. _No more_.

A crowd is gathering in the woods. Looks of terror and sorrow are exchanged outwards. Wells already knows what they'll find, but he looks anyway. 

There's so much blood; he's never seen as much. He can't tell who it is. Just that there's nine fingers. 

“What the hell is going --”

Raven stops dead in her tracks, Bellamy who's following her almost running into her. Everyone stays silent. Minutes stretch on. 

“Get the stretcher”, Bellamy says quietly. A few people run off. Bellamy finds Wells with his eyes. “Where's Octavia?” 

“With Lincoln. She's --”

Bellamy's already gone before he can finish. 

“Who is this? Who found them?” Bellamy's departure’s snaps Raven back into action. 

Fox raises her hand shakily. “I was coming back from the river. It's Myles. He's -- He was only 16.”

“Did anyone see anything? This doesn't just _happen_.” Raven looks around but no one replies. “Clarke, can you figure out... something?” 

“Yeah, I'll”, she can't seem to look away from the body, “by the river.” 

“Anyone who can handle it - help her out with the stretcher and whatever she needs. Everyone else, back to camp. Now.” 

Wells follows the others back. His legs feel numb and heavy. Octavia's chattering excitedly to Bellamy when they arrive. Lincoln looks worried behind her. Wells makes a beeline to him. 

“What happened?” Lincoln asks quietly. 

“A body. In the woods.” 

Lincoln frowns. He can't say anything else over the yelling that's started. 

“It was one of them again!” Dax marches towards them, a blade in his hand. 

Wells is about to move forward but he's beaten to the punch by a small group of people stepping between them. 

“He didn't do it, Dax”, Mbege says sternly. “Get that knife the fuck out of my face and calm down.” 

“He's in here sleeping in our tents, eating our food, while his friends are out there _slaughtering_ us! And you wanna waste time defending him?”

“Yes.”

Wells’ heart is beating in his throat, but the wall of bodies between them and the blade helps defrost his veins. They're ready to defend Lincoln and with him Wells’ actions. 

“You're a fucking fool.”

“What would you do then, Dax?” Bellamy asks. “Let us in on that plan of yours.”

“We need to send a message.” 

Raven glances at Bellamy and Octavia before stepping forward. “There'll be no violence. You want to send a message? Be better than what we all grew to see.” 

“You wanna be next, Reyes?” 

“We can go anytime.” Raven’s stare is cold. 

“You'll get us all killed. What are you getting out of that? You came down here for nothing.”

“My brother was killed by The Ark. Nothing you say will make me think we should be more like them.” 

Dax tosses his knife on the ground at her feet and marches off, and people follow him, glaring at Lincoln as they go. Wells can’t tell how many leave, but it scares him. They’re choosing sides and he’s not sure for what. 

The ground’s showed them once again why they shouldn’t get too comfortable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** implies gay people can't reproduce, generally disdainful tone at gayness 
> 
> it was a little while ago when i came up with jones/mbege but it's my tiny highkey what's a good word for it it's not exactly a crack ship idek but it's a thing now 
> 
> also if sth was to live through an apocalypse n over 100 years in space it's that's what she said jokes
> 
> the comments to hits ratio warms my cold heart thank u (also yea i did That)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for violent threatening language, specifics in the end notes, also death (but i guess that's been for every chapter....), mentions of drugs

Raven ducks into the tent with the blade tightly in her grip. She's the last one to enter with Bellamy, Clarke, Wells and Lincoln already there. 

“How the fuck does this keep happening?” Bellamy sighs. Octavia's securely in the dropship with Miller so the worry on his face is unfiltered. “After Lincoln came in we settled he wasn't going to get us all killed.” 

“Can we just start from the viewpoint that I've never been responsible for the death of anyone?” Lincoln suggests dryly. 

“What happened with Jasper was an accident. But this is nothing like it.” Clarke shakes her head. “Multiple stab wounds, a _finger removed before death_... This is murder.” 

“We have to consider the possibility that --”

“Don't say it”, Lincoln mutters. 

“-- it was an outsider.”

“We do”, Raven says slowly. She takes a step forward and sets the knife on the table in the center. “But we can't overlook the fact that the threat could be closer than we thought.” 

Clarke stares at her. “You're not saying...” 

“This thing is really sharp. They spend a lot of time on these.”

“You think Dax did this?”

“No! No.” Clarke glares at Bellamy. “We -- They've come together. They care about each other. They wouldn't kill each other.”

Wells sighs. “I'm glad you trust them so much, Clarke, but you don't know all of them. They're not all friends. They don't all respect each other.”

“I don't think Dax did this”, Raven says. “But there's four dozen knives in this camp. We shouldn't jump to conclusion about the groundspeople when a chance exists it could be one of us. I'm trying to be diplomatic about this, Clarke. We're all from The Ark. We've all lost someone.”

“What are we gonna do?” Clarke asks quietly. 

A silence follows. 

They'd buried Myles in line with the others. Raven still visits Finn’s grave daily. She sits at the end and buries her fingers in the dirt, like she could still reach for him. She doesn't know if there'll be a morning where she doesn't wake up and for a blissful second think he's there with her. 

“We keep going”, she says. “We have to.”

\--

The wind is picking up, like it knows something they don't. Monty tugs his jacket tighter around himself. 

“Can you believe that bitch?” Dax is pacing, cracking his knuckles. 

“Calm down”, Atom huffs. He doesn’t seem bothered as he cleans the undersides of his nails. 

Monty makes himself smaller when his gaze sweeps the area. The anger and resentment that drew him in had started to crackle into explosive aggression like the scene Dax caused the previous day. 

That morning Raven and Bellamy had stood in front of the entire camp and told them to stay alert and take care of each other. For such a sensible request, the reaction he was seeing now didn't feel necessary. 

“They're endangering all of us just because Jaha finally made a friend. We should've hung that fucking grounder by his ankles outside the camp. Same kind of medieval shit they've been doing to us.”

The response he gets is laughter like it's a normal thing to say. Monty looks around and no one seems concerned - or like they disagree. He wants to stand up and walk away, but he knows they'd question it. Because he's counted as one of them. 

For the first time he realizes he's really, really not. 

\--

There’s not much change in the next few days. The air is still tense over the camp. Everyone speaks quietly like too much noise could set something off. 

It's why no one misses the clamoring that starts outside. Raven leaves her tent and moves behind the gathering crowd to where Monroe, Monty and Roma are standing. 

“What is happening?” 

“Politics”, Roma scoffs. 

“What do you mean?”

“They figured since you got to made announcements, so could they.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Looks like it's a two-party system now.” 

Raven focuses on listening to the man standing in the front. He talks about order and decisions. Raven shakes her head. 

“We never told them to follow us. I suppose it’s fine.”

“I don’t think they’re quite as nice about it.” Monroe holds up a hand at the words “overrule” and _”claim”_. 

“It’s not good”, Monty mutters. 

Raven glances at him, but doesn’t say anything. She worries about him, but she hopes he'll come around on his own and accept their help. 

“They're harmless as long as they stay inactive. I'll talk to Bellamy about it.” 

She moves right away, unwilling to stay and hear more. Bellamy’s nowhere to be seen. They've been getting along better since he cleared things with Wells. Afterwards he'd come to find her, sitting next to her where she was staring into the woods. “If he asks, we're talking”, he'd said. Raven had scoffed at him, but stayed right there. 

“Raven!” Wells calls from the dropship, waving her over. 

She walks up the ramp and follows him inside. Lincoln towers over her, his arms crossed and his face disinterested. Raven blinks at him before glancing over at Wells. 

“We’re having fun, then?” 

“Ignore him.” Wells rolls his eyes at Lincoln. “He’s being whiny. I have exciting news.”

“I’m concerned. Go on.”

“Lincoln said he could take us to meet Anya. She’s kind of like their chancellor.”

“Really?”

“I said I'd take _him_ , but apparently you have to come too”, Lincoln huffs. 

“And Bellamy”, Wells adds. 

Lincoln sighs. 

“What's -- I mean, what are we gonna do? What's the plan?”

Wells looks less sure of himself. “We need to exist in the same space so... I guess we should be somewhat friendly with them.”

Raven raises a brow. “We're gonna go make friends?”

“We're building a bridge between two peoples. It's politics.”

“You hate politics.”

“This is the furthest thing from Ark politics.” 

“When are we going?” She turns to Lincoln. “Are you sure it's safe? Will this Anya actually care for what we have to say?”

“We were never dangerous in the first place”, Lincoln mutters.

Wells grimaces. “We're kind of winging it.”

Raven lets out a breath and smooths down her ponytail. “Of course we are.” 

\--

The radio’s been nothing but static noise since they finished it. They still kept tabs on it regularly, sitting by the receiver changing stations until getting tired and giving up for the day. 

“You still think it's gonna work?” Miller asks. He's stretched out in a seat not too far from his makeshift work station. 

Miller doesn't talk too much; Monty doesn't mind having him around. “You just gotta believe.”

“Right”, he scoffs. “Luck’s really been on our side since we got here, after all.”

Monty rolls his eyes and he can see Miller crack a smile. “You're terrible, you know that?”

“So I've heard.” 

Raven walks in promptly. “Hey, Mon. Hear anything yet?” She knows the answer, but they go through the exchange each time. 

“Still quiet. But Miller's keeping me company. We're having a blast.”

Raven glances at Miller, who in turn gives Monty an unimpressed look. “Right... Anyway, we're heading out now. Lincoln’s taking us to the market. You're in charge, right?”

Miller makes a noncommittal sound. 

“Great. I'll see you later, Mon.”

“Bye.”

Raven's off, and they're left in silence, the only sound in the background the crackle of the radio. Monty sneaks glances at Miller, who's staring at the floor. 

“You're in charge?” he asks finally. 

Miller shrugs. “Is it so hard to believe?”

“No. But you're here and not... bellamy-ing.”

To his surprise, Miller laughs. “You need me to be more like Bellamy?”

Monty keeps his eyes on the tabletop. “No, you're... you're good.” 

“You sure?”

“Shut up.” 

\--

Bellamy’s elbow against hers knocks Raven out of her thoughts. He mutters an apology and they keep going. Wells and Lincoln are a few paces ahead of them, talking quietly to each other. 

“They’re really friends now, huh?”

Raven glances at Bellamy. “Yeah, I mean... yeah, I guess.” 

“Don’t say it like I’m weird. It’s unexpected.”

“I guess.” She shrugs. “You jealous, Blake?”

Bellamy chuckles. “Right.” He runs a hand through his hair. “You wanna be my unlikely friend, Reyes?” 

“You hitting on me, Blake?” 

“You wish.” 

Raven grins. “Are you blushing?”

“We’re not close enough for this.” Bellamy pushes her away by her shoulder. Raven snickers, shoving him back. 

They walk for a long time. Lincoln refused to give them the specifics so they simply follow him. In a few hours they slow down and eventually stop. 

Lincoln looks them all in the eye. “It’s going to be busy so we’ll blend right in. I’m going to get a message to Anya, you just walk through. Don’t make eye contact with anyone. People know each other. Don’t look too much like you’ve been let out for the first time.”

“Thanks, we’ll try”, Raven says dryly. 

The woods start to thin out into a clearing. People wander in between tables covered in flowers, food, handcraft and books. Raven’s heart hammers in her chest. It's possibly the most inviting thing she's ever seen. 

On The Ark she'd never imagined being able to experience a whole different way of living. The setting in front of her is more like a dream. 

Raven has to stop herself from getting too close. People give her kind smiles, hands reaching out to guide her closer, and she wants to. _Oh, how she wants to._ The look on Wells’ face tells her he’s thinking the same thing. Bellamy looks more apprehensive. 

Most seem to be speaking English or Spanish, but she catches some Arabic and Mandarin around a few tables. The blend of languages is not like on The Ark. It’s much more restricted, unyielding. 

Lincoln joins them again, leading them forward.

“So where is this Anya?” Bellamy asks quietly. 

“Not here”, is Lincoln’s reply. 

They leave the marketplace and step off the path further in the woods. The small clearing they end up in is surrounded by dense bushes that scratch at their clothes when they push through. 

Anya stands alone on the other side. She’s not impressive at first glance, but the look in her eyes makes Raven want to take a step back. Her face is stoic, but the displeasure radiates off of her. 

“Anya. Thank you for meeting me.”

“It’s not just you I’m meeting, is it? What have you gotten yourself into again?”

“Anya --”

“Lincoln. You know them. There's a reason you were told to stay away.”

“Do I ever listen?”

The corner of Anya's mouth twitches up just slightly. “Come home, Lincoln.”

Wells clears his throat. “Miss, we --”

“I’m not here to hear from you”, Anya snaps immediately. Wells stands his ground even when her blazing glare is directed at him. Raven feels Bellamy flinch. He's moved to stand slightly in front of her. “You are trespassers on land you abandoned. You’ve robbed us of enough.”

“What do you mean?”

Raven almost feels the need to shush Wells. 

“People have not died in these woods by the hand of another for over thirty years - not until you appeared.”

“You think one of us killed someone?”

Now it's actually Lincoln who silences him with a look. Anya looks amused.

“These are acts of terror in our eyes and we won't accept them.”

“Lincoln was the first of your people we met. Before that we hardly knew you existed. We thought Earth was deserted.”

“So you thought you’d just come and take over?”

“We were sent here against our will. We’re only trying to survive.”

Anya’s brows rise slightly. “You are adults.” 

“Some of us are not. We did not come here as settlers.”

“Not yet. You are the first wave - sure, rather insignificant - but the rest will come. Tell me I’m wrong.” 

Wells nods. “You’re not.”

“We’ve already seen another ship arrive.”

“That was me.” Raven steps forward. “I came alone.”

“A scout?”

“I came to find my brother.”

Anya huffs out a laugh. “So you went rogue.”

“The point is that we’re not here for war. We know nothing of this place. But we want to learn.”

Anya doesn’t get to answer as a loud noise rings through the clearing. The bullet hits a tree behind them before another shot goes off. Anya falls and immediately two people emerge from the treeline, getting her up to her feet. 

Bellamy pulled Raven down at the sound of the first shot. He and Lincoln start dragging her and Wells back, but Raven fights them. 

“Anya, this isn’t us! It’s not us!” 

If she replies, they can’t hear it. There’s no more gunshots as they flee through the woods. Lincoln’s leading them back towards the camp and they slow down to a walk once they're far enough. 

For the entire way back, none of them says a word. 

As soon as they're through the gate, Bellamy's voice booms through the yard. “Who was it?”

“What happened?” Clarke asks for the confused crowd around them. 

“We went to meet with the leader of the groundspeople. And we were shot at.”

It's quiet besides a few whispered words. Raven focuses on the faces in front of her. She calmed down for the most part during the walk back. Now she needs retribution. 

No one looks guilty or like they've just rushed back from a track through the woods. 

“Is there someone who's not here?” She can guess the answer. 

Wells, who went straight for the dropship as they returned, steps back through the curtain. “The gun’s gone.”

“Who else knew where it was?”

“No one as far as I knew.” 

Raven can nearly see the smoke coming out of Bellamy's ears. “The second they get back, I wanna hear about it”, he snaps and disappears in his tent. 

She thinks of going to talk to him, but Monty's calling her to the dropship. His eyes are wide and both he and Miller are standing by his workstation when Raven gets in. 

“The radio. It's working”, Monty says.

\--

“What do you think is gonna happen?” 

Lincoln looks up at him from where he's sitting on the ground. Wells keeps pacing despite the patience in his eyes. 

“A few things can happen. We haven't had a threat of outsiders before.” 

“It's bad, isn't it?”

“After everything that happened here, we swore to uphold peace on this land. Technically, you are now a threat to that peace.”

“How violent exactly is your peacekeeping?”

Lincoln shrugs. “Like I said, I don't exactly have a point of reference.” 

Wells buries his face in his hands. “Could you maybe take this a little more seriously?” 

Lincoln’s fingers wrap around his wrist and pull down his hands. “I can go talk to her.”

“You can?”

“Yes. But I can't promise anything. Except that I'll try.” 

“I know.” Wells manages a weak smile. 

They stand there for a long while, bodies close and minds silent. It's not until Lincoln lets go of him that he realizes he was still holding on. 

“Thank you”, he says. It's for more than just his promise. 

Lincoln nods and heads for the gate. 

\--

“Raven? Raven?” 

She doesn’t think she could be happier to hear Sinclair’s voice. It hits her somewhere deep, making her eyes well up. “Yeah. I’m here.”

“Are you okay? You’re safe?”

“Yes. I made it.”

Sinclair lowers his voice. “Abby and Jackson are in surgery for a little longer. They’ve already been called so they’ll be here any minute. We shouldn't let them know you made it. It's better if they think the 100 are in the dark.” 

“I'll let Monty step in then. Did the video go out? Do they know?”

“It did. But they’re playing it out as an underground job. Which I suppose it could’ve been. Jaha’s been barely conscious. Kane is in charge for now. It's hard to tell how many actually knew.”

“Did they question you?”

“They have no evidence. I'll be fine; don't worry.”

“Do you know when you'll start preparing for a landing?” 

“Not yet. Raven... did you find him?”

She takes a shaky breath. “I was too late.” 

He stays quiet while silent tears run down her cheeks. Monty and Miller are standing by the door of the dropship, giving off the pretense of privacy. 

“He died in the landing. I mean what are the odds, right? My brother - it had to be him.” 

“I'm sorry, Raven.” 

She wipes away the tears and clears her throat. “What are we going to do now?”

“You keep staying alive. If things go as planned, the rest of us will follow soon enough.”

A sudden burst of voices comes from the background. “Is my son alive?” someone yells over the noise right before a door is audibly shut. 

“The 100 have contacted us?” 

Abby's arrived. Raven waves Monty over from where he's worriedly watching Miller, who looks slightly nauseous. 

“Monty Green from Farm Station”, Sinclair says as he gives up the controls. 

“Monty? Can you hear me?”

“Y-yes. I can.”

“We lost connection from the wristbands a while back. Have there been any casualties?”

“Three are dead. So far. We --”

“The weather conditions have been fine? Have you found any sustenance from the ground?”

Monty meets Raven's eyes with a frown. “I -- Yes. The Earth is survivable when it comes to natural conditions.”

“Good. You haven't found Mount Weather yet, though.”

“No, we... we got sidetracked.” 

Raven lays a hand over his. 

“That should still remain on the agenda.”

“Right... Your daughter is okay, by the way. In case you were wondering.”

“Ah, good. Now, how exactly did you manage to contact The Ark. Our attempts at communication have not worked so far.”

Monty's eyes widen. “Uh, well. We found parts of what we assumed to be a pod from the woods not far from here. We figured maybe you'd sent us supplies, but the pod hadn't survived the landing. The radio was in the remains.”

Raven holds up her thumb. 

“I see. Could you fetch Clarke. I'd like to speak to her.”

“Sure, uh, I'll have someone find her.”

Raven heads out, quickly spotting Wells and Clarke nearby. “Listen. Monty got the radio to work. We're keeping it on the d-l just for now. Your mom wants to talk to you, Clarke.”

“Wow, alright.” Clarke wipes her hands on her thighs and takes a step towards the dropship, but Raven stops her.

“As you know, I didn't come down here by any official route. Monty told her you found my pod and that it had crashed. So I'm not here. And most likely neither is Bellamy. Just for now, okay?”

Clarke’s brows are furrowed but she nods. 

“I'll go with her”, Wells says, and Raven nods gratefully. 

“That woman is creepy as hell.” Monty shudders as he walks down the ramp. 

“Tell me about it.”

\--

“Mom, listen. We could be in trouble. There are still humans on Earth. And they're not too happy we're here.”

“There's still life on the ground?”

“Yes. We don't know how many people there are, but it's far from uninhabited.”

“And they're hostile towards you?”

“We don't know yet”, Wells steps in, “we've only had contact with a few. But the latest attempt at communication didn't go so well.”

“They seem to view us as antagonistic. They probably have numbers much higher than ours.” 

“So you think they might attack?”

“No.”

“Maybe.” Clarke shrugs at Wells’ glare. “It's still unclear. We'll have more information soon. Hopefully.”

Jackson’s voice is quiet in the background. “Abby, the people are getting restless outside.”

A sigh. “Inform them that we have contact with their children and that they will get to speak with them as long as they calm down.”

“I'll go tell everyone here”, Clarke says and skips outside.

“So you ended up on the ground, then.” Abby’s voice lacks the calmness it has when Clarke is around. “I see you haven't told Clarke what truly happened.”

“Not yet. I'm hoping she'll see for herself.”

“You might wanna rethink that. The chancellor hasn't been feeling so well. We can only hope things won't take a turn for the worse.”

“You wouldn't.”

“You don't want to test me.”

He drops the receiver without another word. Doctor Griffin’s low chuckle at his silence accompanies him to the door. 

\--

It takes the entire day for everyone with a loved one still on The Ark to get to speak to them. The camp is silent. No one wants to share exactly what was discussed in the monitored minutes they had together. 

Wells watches as Monty walks out of the dropship. He seems to be in a better mood than most after finishing with his parents. Roma had cried, Harper's parents refused to speak to her, Miller came out looking pale. 

He misses his father more than in a while. It feels like forever since they last saw each other. While their relationship has never been the simplest, he loves his dad. He's the only family he's ever had. 

As night falls, they set the seats carved from the dropship walls leaning against logs and watch the stars. Clarke's still inside talking to her mom, but it's too quiet to reach them. Despite everything that could go wrong in the blink of an eye, Wells feels calm. It might as well be the last time. 

As much as he loves the stars, he's still watching the people around him. It's an old habit of his. A sense of duty had always held him back, but watching other children race down the corridors of The Ark or exchange notes in class by throwing them at each other made him think maybe he could live through them a little. 

Clarke was always her own kind of rebellious. She was meticulous in following the rules, but any loopholes were fair game. She was always on time, each hair in place, but Wells could tell it wasn't her own bed she'd just rolled out of. He was immensely jealous of that quality in her. 

Roma and Monroe are bickering not so quietly over constellation placements. One points up at the sky and the other smacks their hand away to point elsewhere. In the end they collapse in a fit of laughter and entwine their fingers over the edge of their seats. 

Miller’s fallen asleep. Monty and Harper keep hushing each other as they pile leaves and sticks and pebbles on top him. Mbege’s sleeping as well. He's tucked under Jones’ chin, body splayed over his in the small chair. Jones stares up at the sky with a hint of a smile on his lips. 

Raven and Bellamy are standing outside his tent where Octavia's sleeping. It's a relief how effortlessly they get along since clearing the air between them. Wells’ feelings for Bellamy are still jumbled in his mind. It's not every day you get kissed by a gorgeous man you're only learning to know. 

It's not that he's confused about what it meant. In fact, it feels like something very _Bellamy_. He's soft and careful with people he trusts. It's more about how it made Wells feel awake, how it made him suddenly more aware of himself. 

Ideally, he was always supposed to fall in love with Clarke and have that be the end of it. But he never did. And he knows why. But it was never the right time to truly go over it. 

“Hey, Jaha! Don't fall asleep there. We don't need any more people to carry inside.” 

Monroe’s grin is bright and teasing. They and Roma are dragging Mbege up so Jones can get out of his seat. The boy seems to still be mostly asleep. 

He salutes them in reply before pushing himself up. Everyone's preparing to turn in for the night. Clarke's getting herself water, the radio switched off for now. 

“Who's watching the gate?” Wells asks Bellamy once he's made his way to them. 

“I'm staying up for a while in case the jackasses with the gun show up. But I think Diggs will take over. Why?”

“I don't know when Lincoln will come back. I figured I'd mention it to Diggs just in case.”

“You think he'll come back?”

“Of course. Why wouldn't I?”

It's not hard to miss the look Raven shoots him in warning. Bellamy shrugs. “No reason. I just thought maybe he'd actually want to go home. But of course it's fine he's coming back.” 

“So you'll tell Diggs?”

“I will.”

“Thank you.”

Clarke's waiting for him in front of the dropship. “You okay?”

“Yeah. You?”

She leans against his side and he wraps an arm around her shoulders. “Maybe tomorrow.”

\--

Raven wakes up to yelling. There are multiple voices going back and forth, too loud for her to ignore and go back to sleep. 

She sees Bellamy first as she steps out of her tent. He's standing with his back to the growing crowd, between them and the team of boys holding large guns. 

“You're not in charge of me, Blake. It's finders keepers.”

“And what exactly are you doing with half a dozen automatic weapons?” 

Dax grins. “Whatever the hell we want.”

“Was it these guns or the one you stole before that you used to shoot at us yesterday?” Raven stands next to Bellamy, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“No idea what you're talking about.”

“They say they got lost and found another bunker while on a walk yesterday”, Bellamy scoffs. “Guns had survived there.” 

“No one put you in charge, you know? You think just because you've got a few years on us you're better than us?”

“Is that what you want? An election? You wanna pick a chancellor or something?” 

Dax shrugs, toying with the strap of his gun. “I don't need anyone telling me what to do.” 

“Fine. I might not be in charge of you. But if I see you pointing that gun at anyone here, you can find yourself another place to sleep at.” 

“You threatening me, Blake?”

“Yes.” 

Bellamy doesn't move as the four push past him. Raven lets out the breath she was holding. 

“They're gonna be trouble.”

“I'll deal with it.”

Raven steps in front of him, forcing him to meet her eyes. “You don't have to, you know? We're not your responsibility.” 

“One of you is.”

“Is she with Miller?” 

“Yeah.”

“You really trust him, huh?”

“I do.”

“Maybe try trusting some of the rest of us too. Just a thought.” 

She leaves him standing there as she goes to find Monty. He's working on the radio again when she gets to him. 

“Are they back yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Can I ask you something?”

Monty lets his hands fall into his lap and faces her. “Sure.”

“With Dax and his crew. He's not the one in charge, is he?” 

“No.” 

“Figures. He's not smart enough to be the brains. It's someone who stayed behind, then. Smart.”

“His name is Atom. The others listen to him.”

Raven squeezes his shoulder. “Thanks.” 

\--

The call to open the gate is what gets his attention first. He’s sitting near Octavia and Raven, who are playing tic-tac-toe on the dirt. As he looks up at the sound, he spots Lincoln at the gate. 

Wells is up without even thinking, moving through the camp to get to him. He hadn't realized there was a presence missing until now that the place was filled again. Lincoln smiles at him and he looks different. 

What was before covered in a messy beard is now clean shaven, revealing a strong jaw and full lips. The gate is closed again, and people turn back to what they were doing besides a few dirty glances at the man. 

“Hi. You, uh... You're a lot younger than I thought.” 

Lincoln lets out a surprised laugh. “How old did you think I am?” 

“I don't know. Older than us.”

“I don't know how old you are”, Lincoln points out. 

“I'm 21.”

“Well, I'm older than _that_.” 

Wells feels lighter as he grins. But they have actual issues to discuss. Focus is needed. 

“Did you talk to Anya? Is she okay?”

“She is. But she isn't happy. I went to take part in the mourning before I could reach her. They've chosen to take definitive steps to neutralize the threat. We don't condone guns.” 

“I've got bad news for you, then... There's more guns now.” 

Lincoln nods solemnly. “They'll make you leave either way. You can't stay here and endanger the rest of us.” 

“We have nowhere else to go. The Ark is still going to come down. We have to wait for them.”

“The time for talking passed already. It was cut short by your bullets.”

Wells sighs. “Is there nothing we can do?” 

“You'll have to decide for yourselves. I don't know what else you could say to Anya. She's a reasonable woman, but you shot at her.” 

“What will they do?” 

“They'll come for you in a few days’ time. We have strength in numbers. You'll be given a choice to go or die.” 

“I thought you were peaceful.”

“Peace has to be kept somehow.”

“And who gets to choose how?”

Lincoln shakes his head. “They think your people killed two of ours. It's a dire situation.” 

“So they'll just kill us all?” 

“I don't know, Wells. It's not exactly a common problem we're facing. I'd like to think no violence is needed in most cases, at all times. They can force you to move, though, whether you want to or not.” 

“Without guns?”

“Even without guns.”

Wells glances around but no one's paying attention to them. “Will you stay? With me, us, I mean.” 

“I was advised not to... but I will. If you want me to.”

“I do. I do.”

“Then I will.” 

They stay silent for a moment, eyes locked. Wells wants to think there's something Lincoln can do for them. And that it's why he's relieved he's staying. 

“We should go talk to the others. I'll go find Bellamy and Clarke. You should go say hi to Octavia. She missed you.”

Lincoln rolls his eyes, but does as he says.

\--

The result upon everyone hearing about the upcoming events is unsurprising. Voices rise in protest as fear clouds judgement. 

“We have to move, right? There's no other way.”

“What do you mean there's no other way? They don't have guns.”

“They could be lying!”

“There's more of them than there are of us.”

“They can't make us leave!”

“They were here first, though.”

Raven meets Bellamy's eyes before he steps forward. “Alright, enough!”

A silence falls. Everyone's eyes are on him. 

“The truth is... we haven't selected a leader, we're not a closed community. You're all free to do whatever you want. We'll stay here and hear them out. You don't have to. You can leave whenever you want. But if you think for a second I'll let you meet an unarmed force with automatic weapons, think again.”

“So what are you gonna do? Stand by and watch as they destroy everything we’ve built here?” 

“If that’s what keeps us alive.” 

The boy who spoke spits on the ground at his feet. “That just makes you a coward.”

The crowd starts to disperse, and Bellamy walks away. Raven's rooted to where she's standing. She knows they're not her responsibility, but the 100 coming apart feels wrong. 

“Keep an eye on O, okay?” she says to Wells. Once she gets a nod in reply, she steers towards where Bellamy disappeared moments earlier. She doesn't get all the way to the gate before Miller stops her.

“Check the cliff.”

“Huh?”

“Take the path to the right from the bunker.”

She smiles in gratitude and heads into the woods. The sun is still out so she has no trouble locating the bunker. She takes the tiny path on the right and soon enough reaches the edge of the woods. 

The cliff has a steep drop down to what seems to be the river spreading out. Bellamy's sitting right by the side, staring out into the horizon. 

Raven sits next to him and stays quiet. Bellamy doesn't make a move to acknowledge her presence. 

“I shot Jaha, you know”, he says suddenly.

“I know.”

“I shot him so they wouldn't send a child alone to the ground. And I'm the coward.”

“Bellamy --”

“We kept her under the floor.” Bellamy doesn't look at her as he speaks, his eyes still on the sea of treetops. “She spent her life under the floor because her birth was a crime. I made sure she didn't cry, that she didn't make a sound when someone was near. Sometimes I wanted them to find her just so I didn't have to lie anymore.”

He scrubs his hands over his face. “The day you met her, it was all my fault. She wanted to just _see_ everything I told her about. So I took her out that one time. She was almost caught because of me. 

My sister, my responsibility. That's what my mother told me the day she was born. I tried so hard, but I couldn't do it.” 

“This is not your fault, Bellamy. It's out of your control.”

“But I chose to lead them. Or try. And I failed.”

“You did it to protect Octavia. I know you care about them too, but it doesn't turn this into your doing.” 

“If we die, everything I did will be for nothing.”

“Jaha’s alive. That's all that matters.”

“You don't care why I did it?”

“You said it was for your sister. That's enough for me to understand. You didn't want to kill him. Wells forgave you; everyone else will too.” 

Bellamy glances at her. “Your brother. What did he do?” 

“He, um, he took an illegal spacewalk.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

“I don't think he did.”

Raven hesitates. “Why do you think that?”

“Monty mentioned you're the best mechanic on The Ark in 50 years. But you worked inside and not in zero-g.”

She sighs. “They found I have a heart defect. They didn't care to waste the training on me. Not even Sinclair could overrule that... And it's 52 years.”

Bellamy lets out a chuckle that lacks humor. “So you're the spacewalker.”

“I let him talk me into it. It was my 21st birthday and I was devastated about the verdict. Finn wanted to cheer me up. He always did that. He always took care of me even when we were little and my mom left me hanging. So I did it. And we got caught.”

“Except that you didn't.”

“They would've executed me. Finn was still 19 so he took the fall while I hid. And now he's gone.”

“That's not your fault either.”

“It is. So I won't take anything for granted. We'll survive this. Because we have to. Because we've made it this far.”

“You really think we'll make it?”

Raven reaches out to touch his hand. “I got here in a metal can. I think anything’s possible.” 

Bellamy manages a smile that actually has some warmth to it. “Guess I'll just have to trust you on that.” 

“Yeah, you do.” 

They watch in silence as a bright light sets off in the sky, moving closer and closer. Bellamy looks as confused as she feels. 

“Is that... another pod?”

“Yours was much smaller. It must be a dropship.”

“Why isn't it slowing down? The parachute should be out already.”

The crash happens far away, but it's like they can feel the ground shake. A cloud of smoke rises over the trees.

\--

Night falls and the camp starts quieting down. The air is thick with tension as people view their options and make their final decisions. 

Monty sets down an armful of firewood and brushes down the front of his jacket. He's heard some plan to leave at first light so they'll get as far from the camp as possible. Still, most don't seem to want to go wandering aimlessly. 

Since the crash, they've heard nothing from The Ark. Clarke had told Jackson about what they were facing during the last call. Since then it's been silent. 

Monty doesn't want to believe The Ark is dead. His mom and dad are still up there. He won't believe they're gone. He's already lost Jasper and that was enough. 

He almost trips over Atom, who's lying by one of the fires. “Is he okay?” he asks a girl he knows follows the man. 

She just shrugs. “He's high.”

“On what?”

“Don't know. He won't share.” She kicks the bottom of his shoe before stomping away. 

Monty catches Harper's arm as she's passing. “Hey, have you heard of some drugs?”

She grins. “Are you offering?” 

“Funny. I mean about someone having any. Here.”

“No. Can't say I have.” 

“Where would you even find some? It's not like any could just grow here, right?”

“I wouldn't know, man. I haven't exactly lit up any random grass in hopes of getting high.” 

“Yeah. There's probably something to mimic it.”

Harper gives him a weird look and keeps going. Monty's still worried. If the people with half a dozen machine guns are also on something, it can't be good. 

“We should go meet them. Before they reach the camp”, Clarke’s saying as he walks up to her and Raven. 

“How does that help?”

“It’d stop the knuckleheads with firepower from ruining things again. And the youngest could stay here.”

“They could send others straight to here, though.”

“Well we won’t just leave the youngest, then. Either way it’s a good plan.” 

“Fine. But we still don’t have an actual plan of action when it comes to the meeting.” 

Monty clears his throat. “We should appeal to their empathy. The Ark is all we’ve known. It wasn’t our choice to come here. And we’ll agree to whatever legal system they might have. We both have bodies dropping on us. Someone’s gotta be doing this and we’re nowhere closer to figuring out who than them.” 

“Maybe we should. Figure out who it is, that is.” Raven looks around and lowers her voice. “If it is one of us, someone must know, right? There’s someone who’s been gone a lot, randomly had blood on them, anything.”

“I doubt they’ve left a bloody knife lying around for us to find.” 

“We can ask around.”

Clarke turns to him. “You’ve been around them, Monty. Have you seen anything suspicious?” 

“Not for a while. And I don’t know. None of them happened to tell me about their homicidal tendencies, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Raven smooths down her ponytail, her brow furrowed in thought. “It’d have to be someone who’s angry. But really intelligent to be getting away with it. Stays under the radar.”

“Well... That sounds like Atom. But he’s kind of out of it right now.”

“What do you mean?” 

“He’s high. Apparently.”

“High? On what?”

“Don’t know.”

“Let’s go talk to him.” Clarke grabs Raven’s arm. “Where is he?”

Monty points them to the right direction, staying in place while they go. He watches as they walk up to the man. Clarke crouches down to talk to him. He can’t see their faces, but when come back, they share grave looks. 

“He’s dead.” 

“What? No. I just talked to him.”

Clarke shakes her head. “His body’s still warm. But he’s dead.” 

“How?”

“It must be what he was using, right?” Raven frowns. “I mean, people don’t just _drop dead_.”

“I can’t exactly do any tests. But now we have to move him.” 

“Miller!” Raven calls to the boy walking past them. “Come here.”

“Whatever you’re scheming, I want nothing to do with it.”

“I wish it was that. Give me a hand.” 

He follows Raven back to Atom’s body. They pretend to help him up, bringing his arms around their necks to carry him to the side of the dropship. 

“How the hell did you get that guy killed now?” Miller huffs when they return. 

“We’re trying to figure it out. We thought he could be the killer. But clearly not.”

Miller shakes his head and walks away. 

Someone bumps into Monty and he turns around. The girl stares back at him with wide eyes. Blood seeps from her nose and trickles down to her cheeks from the corners of her eyes. 

“Help me”, she rasps. 

Clarke reaches for her immediately, but she breaks into a fit of coughs, blood spattering on her hands. “Ah, shit. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

“Clarke, what’s going on?” Raven asks. 

“I don’t know yet. But I have a bad feeling.” She helps the girl into the dropship. 

“That was one of Atom’s followers. She was just with him.” 

“Maybe she got some of the bad bash as well?” 

“She said he wouldn’t share.”

A boy collapses a few feet away from them, his mouth stained crimson. Raven and Monty share a look. 

“Then what the hell is going on?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** dax talks about how they should hurt lincoln to send a message, also calls raven a b*tch, atom is said to be high, he dies
> 
> anyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-i-ai will always love uuuuuu
> 
> ok but 4 real .... rip in pieces all the young gay boys when bellamy's around like .......   
> also poor wells .. the thirst is real n wellslincoln is ready 2 rise


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for hemorrhagic fever which includes bleeding, emetophobia just in case for a few mentions specifics in the end notes
> 
> this chapter concludes season one of the rewrite! thank you so much for reading and leaving feedback, and keep an eye out for season two

They slump down on a log after helping three more people into the dropship. Monty feels much like on the first day after their trek through the woods. His muscles burn and his head is light. 

“Not that I couldn’t keep doing this, but I’m not feeling so good right now”, Raven says through shallow breaths. 

“We might have it too. We did get coughed on.”

“No bleeding yet. Guess that’s a plus.”

“How many are infected? Did you ask Clarke?”

“I think we’re up to 17. Us not included. Clarke didn’t look too good either.”

“What the hell is this thing?”

“Clarke said some kind of a fever. Hemorrhagic or something.” Raven leans her forehead on her knees. “I feel like my body’s shutting down.”

“Maybe it is.”

Raven shoots him a pained look. “I’m not dying.”

“Me neither. But I don’t know if I’d like to once I start vomiting blood.”

“You're the actual worst.”

“Should we just go to the dropship and lie down?”

“Let’s do one more round.”

They drag themselves up. The healthy are sitting further away from the dropship, bustling with nerves as more and more fall sick. 

Bellamy watches them with a frown. Octavia’s busied by Lincoln telling her stories. Monty waves at him to try to ease his mind, but Bellamy’s face doesn’t change. 

No one else has gotten sick since their last round so they head to the dropship. Clarke wipes her nose with a bloody rag as she looks up at them. People are spread out on the floor, sleeping or trying to breathe without breaking into coughs. 

“Clarke, you’re bleeding. Go lie down.”

“It's just a nosebleed. I'm fine.” 

Monty's too tired to argue. “Just don't black out standing up.” He crawls on the closest bunk and curls up. Raven settles somewhere behind him. They're both asleep in minutes. 

\--

The fever is worse than anything he's ever felt. His insides are constantly twisting painfully and his body scorches hot, but he's so cold, the trembling and hacking coughs not letting him fall asleep for long. Every time he thinks the bleeding must've already stopped, another set of dry heaves hits and rips him open. 

Clarke had to give up eventually and rest, so they brought in volunteers from the healthy to take care of them. It's mostly to keep them hydrated and on their sides to ease their breathing and let the blood out. 

Monty has no idea how long he's lied there. It could be days with how fuzzy his line of thought remains. He's not sure how long he can take it. The little sleep he gets is unnerving and tinted with worry, nightmares flashing past faster than he can digest. He's covered in sweat, his clothes like a weight over him.

“Hey. How are you doing?” 

He cracks open an eye to see Miller sitting next to him. Dried blood crusts his chin and the undersides of his nails as he feels his own face. “Kill me.”

Miller huffs out a laugh. “You're almost done.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“Crystal’s fine now. She was the first to get sick. It won't be more than a few hours more for you too.”

“You sure? ‘Cause I think I'm dying.”

The back of Miller’s hand is cool against his burning forehead, and Monty's eyes flutter shut. “I promise.”

He turns to press his face into the blanket and coughs, curling into himself as the pain ripples through his chest. “Sure. Right.”

“Try to sleep for a bit.”

Monty grabs his wrist weakly before he can pull his hand away. “Is Raven okay? How many are sick?”

“She's fine. She's sleeping now. Maybe 30 or 40 people. Some got off easier than you, though.”

He's not sure if he answers the boy before he’s falling into a fever-induced sleep with Miller's fingers stroking lightly over his forehead. 

\--

 

She's pulling on a clean shirt when she hears someone duck into her tent. Checking over her shoulder, Raven sees Bellamy quickly avert his eyes and turn away. 

“Never seen a girl naked, Blake?”

Bellamy scoffs, but doesn't say anything while Raven gets the fabric tugged down the rest of the way. 

“What's up?” 

Bellamy steps further in. “I just wanted to see if you're okay.”

His voice is sincere and has Raven stopping in her tracks. She narrows her eyes at him, but Bellamy just looks back, waiting for an answer.

“I've rinsed my mouth about fifty times so I guess.”

“You should get some sleep.”

“I've been sleeping for ages. You're not trying to get me to stay back, are you?” 

“No. I know you won't.”

“Who's Octavia with?”

“Miller’s gonna stay with her.” 

“Good.” 

Bellamy falls quiet, but stays where he is. She's not sure what's going on. She knows Bellamy has a lot on his mind. It's unsure what'll happen with The Ark, but in case the rest make it to the ground, he's still guilty in their eyes. As is she. 

They have a lot in common, Bellamy and her. He might be the only one who really understands. But they're still not familiar with each other - not quite. It's been building up, whatever _this_ is, but it's been subtle enough for her to miss. 

“What are you really here for, Bellamy?”

“I don't know.”

Maybe for the both of them. 

“I guess... I guess I wanted to thank you. Officially.”

“For what?”

“For helping Octavia. On The Ark.”

“It's noth--”

“And me.”

Raven stops. Bellamy's just a step away, the line of his shoulders relaxed and his face cautious but vulnerable. 

“You're welcome”, she says softly.

Bellamy clears his throat and a slight smile curves his lips. “What, are we friends now?”

She keeps her eyes locked on his. “No.” Bellamy doesn't look away as she steps up to him. Her fingers tangle in his hair and he's already moving forward to meet her lips in a kiss. 

His hands skim down her back and suddenly her thighs are locked around his waist as Bellamy hoists her up against him. Raven breaks away just to roll her eyes at him before kissing him again. 

Bellamy manages a step towards her bed before a loud voice calls for them from outside. With a sigh he lets her slip back down to her feet. 

“Well”, Raven smooths down her shirt, “I'm assuming we can get back to that another time?”

Now it's Bellamy's turn to roll his eyes. He places a gentle kiss on her lips before ducking out of the tent. Raven lets out a long breath. 

“I'll take that as a yes.”

Clarke has her hands on her hips as she waits for her and Bellamy to reach her. 

“Do you have a count of how many are gone?” 

Miller shrugs at Clarke before looking to Bellamy. “Who exactly are we considering gone and who missing?” 

“He's got a point.”

Clarke huffs but lets it go. “You need to leave without _them_ noticing.” She nods towards the remainder of Atom’s followers. 

“How many of us are going?” Raven asks. Most of the people infected are outside again. 

“Ten, maybe more.” 

“We shouldn't all go at once, then.”

“Roma and Monroe are already outside. The next few are leaving in a minute.”

“We could use a distraction anyway. I think it's time for dinner.” Clarke pulls Raven into a hug. “Be safe. All of you.” She looks meaningfully at Bellamy, who nods. 

Miller rests a hand on his shoulder just for a few seconds before following Clarke. 

Raven tries to shake the feeling of finality. “Who's going next?”

Bellamy points his chin to where Mbege and a few others are walking towards them. He shares a look with Mbege and the small group heads for the gate. 

“You're not coming?” Raven asks Jones, who's appeared by her side to watch the others go. 

“No. If something goes wrong here, I'll come to you. If it's the other way around, he'll return here. Either way, I'll see him soon, inshallah.” 

\--

Once they're all gathered, Lincoln takes the lead. The forest is quiet around them as they head to the planned location. 

It's a small clearing where the late afternoon sun still hits. The light fades soon as they wait. The distant rumble of footsteps has them instinctively moving closer to one another. 

Only Lincoln doesn't look surprised when two women emerge from the woods. They can see the shapeless sea of people behind them in the shadows, but they remain still. 

Anya shakes her head. “Of course.”

“I told him not to stay”, the other woman says dryly. 

“Hi, Indra.”

“So, what now? You're a part of them? You've abandoned your home?”

“It's not that dramatic”, Lincoln huffs. “I'm paying back a debt to a friend.”

“Right. Because one saved your life instead of killing you.” 

Anya's eyes move over each one of them. “I see you've had a rough night.” She nods at the blood still staining Monroe’s jacket. 

“Was it really necessary, An?”

“It was, actually”, Indra snaps. 

“The one you lost”, Anya stares right at Raven, “he's the murderer.”

“How -- How do you know?”

“We found out what was missing. Each whose life was taken was carrying a vial. Each one was empty at discovery. Your murderer took _lives for narcotics_. So we advised those coming anywhere near your settlement to carry tainted product.”

“You could've killed them.”

Anya glares at Lincoln. “Only one needed to be affected. It was an unfortunate coincidence that their bodies were weaker than expected.” 

“You have your killer now. You don't have to do this, Anya.”

“We've gone through this. Guns have no place here. We did not survive underground for decades to be slaughtered in the same way the generations before the Fall were. Guns have no other purpose than killing.”

“They were prisoners exiled here by their leaders. They're not soldiers. No one is in command. The individuals with guns are in charge of themselves only.” 

“How long until they think they should be in charge of more?”

“Why are you here, Lincoln?” Indra asks, clearly out of patience. 

“They have no other place to go. The majority of them are ready to follow our rules. There's a better way to get rid of the weapons.” Lincoln sighs heavily. “There are children at that camp, Indra.”

“There are more of them, who will come. Can we expect them to follow our laws?” Indra shakes her head. “They left here before the Fall, like cowards. They left us to rebuild what was destroyed, and now they're back to reap the benefits.” 

“I'm not saying the situation can't change. But for now, they can't be held responsible for decisions they had no say in.”

“What do you advise we do, huh? Just let them stay and wait for the day their people can join them with more guns?”

“If there were no gun, would you let them stay?”

“They would have a better chance at least.”

“So we'll get rid of them”, Raven says. “If we do that and deliver them to you, will you let us stay? For now.”

Anya watches her for a long while. Raven stands her ground, meeting her steely gaze. “I would consider it, yes.”

“Anya --”

“Indra. Our decisions have the ability to affect all of our people. We need to think of their safety before our own grudges.” 

A lot happens in the next few seconds. 

The sky is lit up by fire as it rains down to the ground. The sound is deafening, making them clutch their ears in shock. The ground shakes under them when parts of The Ark crash onto the earth. 

Mbege staggers over to them with Jones on his heels. “Someone's at the camp. They're attacking.”

“It's not us”, Anya says with wide eyes. Indra curses next to her as the masses behind them scatter in attempt to get away. “We only sent scouts.” 

“You're sure?” Raven stares her down. 

“I am. My second is with them. She would not let them do this.”

“Do we have a deal?”

“Bring the guns and we’ll talk.”

Raven nods. The others have already left back to camp and she runs after them. She stumbles through the woods in the dark. Without Lincoln she's unsure of the way, but it doesn't stop her from keeping up her pace. 

A short yell stops her abruptly. She leans against a tree, trying to steady her breathing to hear over the pounding in her head.

Another noise guides her in the right direction. It's still too dark to see well and the trees cover any light from the sky. She can just make out a figure crouched over on the ground.

“Hey! Are you okay?” 

The gunshot scares her into a run again, flight instinct taking over. 

\--

“Octavia? O!”

Bellamy’s first through the gate, but he freezes as he takes in the empty yard. Wells is right behind him, stopping to breathe heavily after the sprint. 

“Octavia!” 

Wells doesn't want to say he's calling for nothing. He can't do that to Bellamy. Instead, he goes to check the tents. Each and every one is empty. Things are thrown haphazardly on the ground around the old fireplaces. 

Bellamy's still calling out for his sister as they approach the dropship. The others reach the gate and freeze just like they did. 

“Bellamy...”

He can't finish the thought. They go inside, the eerie silence weighing on them heavily. 

“ _Bellamy?_ ”

The sound is muffled, oddly distant. Bellamy meets his eyes, his mouth hanging open. 

“Octavia?” 

“ _Bellamy!_ ” 

They rush around, looking for the source of the voice as quietly as they can to not lose it. Wells spots the handle first and he drags up the hatch on the floor. Octavia stares up at them with wide eyes.

Bellamy makes a pained noise and helps his sister up before catching her in a bone-crushing hug. She lets him hold her, simply gazing at Wells over his shoulder. 

“What were you doing in there?” Bellamy keeps her at arm’s length even when he lets go.

“Miller told me to hide. But I couldn't get out.”

“So you went under the...” Bellamy lets out a shaky breath, blinking back tears. “Smart girl.” 

“Did you see anything?” Wells asks gently. “Or hear something?”

“Yelling. And something red. But I went fast because Miller told me.”

“That's good. You did well.”

“Where is Miller?”

“We don't know.” He and Bellamy share a look. “But we'll find out.” 

“Raven!”

The shock in Roma’s voice has them running back outside. Raven’s leaning against the side of the gate, blood covering her left leg. 

“What the hell happened?” 

“I-I think I got shot.”

“She's in shock”, Roma whispers. 

Bellamy brings his arm around the back of her knees and picks her up. Wells follows them to the dropship. Raven’s breathing is shallow and her eyes won't focus on him when he tries to talk to her. 

“Raven, where are you hurt?”

Bellamy sets her on her right side. “I think the bullet went through. Here, below her hip.” 

“I don't know what to do, Bellamy. I'm not Clarke.”

“Neither of us is. We need to figure something out. Think, Wells.”

He takes a few deep breaths. Clarke would stay calm and her calmness would ease his mind. 

“She wouldn't have made it here if an artery was hit. That's good. We need to clean the wound, patch it up. There was a kit somewhere.” 

“I'll go find it.” Bellamy darts away again, leaving him alone with Raven. 

“You're gonna be okay, Raven. I promise.” 

“I got shot.”

“I know, but you're okay. We'll get you cleaned up.” 

Raven clutches his hand tightly and doesn't say another word. Bellamy returns quickly and they work swiftly to do their best at first aid.

“Do you think The Ark made it?” Bellamy asks quietly when they're trying to wash the blood off their hands. Raven's fallen into a light sleep. 

“It didn't come down all at once. Who knows, really. The stations must've scattered all around. Even if someone made it, who knows if they have a way to navigate their way to us.” 

“Do you think your dad...”

Wells sighs. “I don't know. I don't think I'm comprehending everything that's happened today.” 

To his surprise Bellamy wraps him up in a hug. They stay like that, Wells’ face pressed against his shoulder, for a long time. Bellamy stays with Raven. 

Outside, the others have started a fire. The camp looks wrong being so empty. They huddle around the fire like the night’s suddenly turned colder. 

“What the hell are we gonna do now? Fifty people don't just disappear into thin air.” Monroe chucks a pine cone into the fire in frustration. 

“The Ark came down. We could try to find them?”

“Should we still take the guns to Anya?”

Wells nudges Lincoln’s shoulder with his own while the others debate. “You're being awfully quiet.”

“I don't have answers for you.”

“But you must have some thoughts? Have you ever seen anything like this before?” 

Lincoln holds up an odd canister. “These are smoke bombs. They must've been knocked out with these. They were all over the camp.”

“Do you know where they're from?”

“I'm not sure... I could probably find out. But I'd have to go back home.”

“Do you think we should take the guns to Anya.”

“I do. I think she'd like to hear about this too.” 

“If The Ark made it, I don't know what that'll mean.”

“I know.” Lincoln watches him for a moment. “You think they're alive.” 

“I have to. Until we know for sure.” 

\--

A continuous beeping brings Monty out of the hazy dream he was having. It’s too bright for him to see, almost like when he still woke up on The Ark. The light is artificial and cold, painful on his eyes. 

“Monty?” 

His eyes water as he tries to focus on the figure at his side. Clarke’s hair is too bright in the light and he shields his face with his hands. 

“You’re awake!” 

Footsteps rush over to his other side. “Monty? Can you hear me?” 

His throat is bone dry. “Yeah.” Finally he manages to open his eyes and they focus on Harper's smiling face. She looks cleaner, her hair brushed and her clothes changed. “Hi.”

“You scared us.”

“What did I do?”

“You were sick. Probably still from the virus”, Clarke says. She also appears groomed. “It's been two days.”

“They've refused to leave your side.” 

Monty doesn't recognize the third girl at his bedside. “Who are you?”

“I'm Maya. I volunteer here.”

He looks around the room. It looks like the clinic on The Ark: plain walls, bright lights, a couple of hospital beds. “What is here?”

“Oh. Right.” Maya offers him a smile. “Welcome to Mount Weather.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** bleeding from the eyes, mouth and nose, monty mentions there might be throwing up blood during the fever
> 
> welcome to mt weather yall. slightly shorter ending to keep the lame cliff hanger lol (last scene of the gifset was moved) but for real boy does scrapping most of the violence really cut the whole thing shorter lmao
> 
> yall thought i'd reveal the killer but there's in fact two gotcha ((but i mean ............. u should know now))
> 
> season two will include mount weather, lexa, going more into groundsppl life, more backstories, luna, romance rising, more povs, and probably other stuff too i don't rmr right now


End file.
